The PELM Chronicals
by Airrizzon
Summary: At last the tales from the children who were tortured in the Maximal science lab P.E.L.M is here! Find out the real reason why Tigatron can't remember Cybertron, or why Rampage is so crazy, as well as many more you never knew existed!
1. The First

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The First.

_ This is the horrifying tale of what happened on Cybertron just a few years before the beast wars, to some of the children on Cybertron who were born with a program error known as psychic abilities. Some of these brave little heros would indeed make it into the war, while others became casualties in a one sided war, small children against scientists. This is the story of the psychic experimentation lab for Maximals, P.E.L.M._

The green fembot looked around nervously as she walked out of her apartment in Cybertropolis. After a few moments she smiled. "All clear." She walked out holding the hands of two young bots. The female was orange, while the male was a light green, both sporting identical white lower plates and chest plates. "Now I don't want you two causing any trouble today alright?"

The green one looked up at the fembot. "I won't mommy. Trioptica might."

The Orange one gave him a dirty look. "You cause problems Stellar, not me!" A moment later, a chunk of debris flew off the ground and hit Trioptica in the face. "MOMMY!"

The fembot stopped. "This is exactly what I mean! I told you not to do that in public! We don't need anyone noticing your abnormalities."

Stellar looked at his mother. "I thought you didn't care if we did it mommy."

The fembot sighed, and knelt down next to them. "I just don't want anyone to see you doing it. It's ok if we're at home, but not while we're here in public."

"Yes mommy." The twins said in unison.

The mother stood up, and noticed a man watching them from an alley. She gripped their hands tighter. "Come on sparklings, we have to get some food for dinner tonight, then we'll go see daddy at work."

As she walked away, the man peeked his head out of the shadows to watch her, and he let out a low cackle.

"Step right up, step right up! You sir, for just 5 credits, I'll guess your age! All you have to do is write your age on this data pad without letting me see it. If I guess anything except what you wrote, you win 10 credits!"

A man walked over to the young bot, perhaps 5 Stellar Cycles old. "This I gotta see. Ok kid you're on." He placed 5 credits on the cardboard box the child was sitting behind, and picked up the data pad.

The child, rather than looking at the pad, looked at the man, and focused. _34. He'll never guess. Everyone says I look 27!_ The child smiled as well as he could with a speaker style mouth. "Are you ready sir?" The man nodded. "Though you look very young, I'll have to say you're 34 Stellar Cycles." The man looked stunned, but before he could do anything the boy took the data pad out of the man's hand. "Yup, looks like you lose. Tough luck." With that he quickly grabbed the 5 credits before the man could take them back.

Indeed the man looked furious. "You little piece of slag! You swindled me somehow, I know it!"

The boy just smiled, and turned away from the man, yelling again toward the passers by. "Step right up, this may be the easiest money you ever won!"

After a few minutes the boy felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up and swallowed. "Hello son, I'm with the Cybertron police. What's your name and race?"

The boy swallowed again. "R..Rampage sir. I'm a Predicon." He knew he was in trouble the moment the officer arrived. Even now Predicons were looked at as swindlers and liars.

"Well Rampage, did you know it was illegal to run a gambling business of any sort without a license?" Rampage shook his head. "Well I'm going to have to take you down to the precinct. Will you walk with me calmly so I don't have to handcuff you?" Rampage nodded, and the officer took his wrist gently, and took him to the station.

On their way to the station, the officer questioned Rampage about how he always seemed to know the right answer. "I can hear their thoughts." He said proudly. "They always think about their age first, and sometimes they write down the wrong age just to see if I get it wrong, but I always know."

The officer nodded at Rampage when he said this, and refused to speak to him anymore. When they got to the station, a bot in highly polished armor. "Hey Streamline, you get the memo the commissioner sent out this morning?"

He glanced at Rampage sadly. "Yes, yes I did, that's what I'm doing right now."

"Oh..." The other bot said. He gave Rampage a pitying look, and Rampage shrunk away from them as best as he could. "Well best take him up to the tenth floor for processing."

Streamline nodded, and took Rampage onto an elevator. When it reached the tenth floor he saw a large desk with a friendly looking bot at the counter, and two halls ending in doors. The bot got up from the table, and smiled. "Looks like he's the first one to come through here. What's his information?"

Streamline pulled Rampage over to the man, and put his hand into the other bot's. "This is Rampage, a 5 Stellar old Predicon. He's an orphan, and was found running a gambling game using telepathy."

Rampage didn't understand what the last word meant, and he looked at Streamline curiously, but he refused to look at him. "Don't worry, he'll be quite content here among his own kind. You've done a fantastic service to your community. I'll take him from here."

Streamline knelt down next to Rampage, and hugged him. Rampage was very confused as to why a Maximal police officer was hugging him. He heard him whisper in his ear. "Be brave, be strong, and always be willing to help those who need it, and you might get through this."

Streamline stood up quickly, and walked onto the elevator. Rampage tried to follow him, but as the doors shut the man holding his hand jerked him back quickly, and suddenly punched him in the face. "I don't think any of the usual testing is needed, but just in case lets take you to the on site lab."

Rampage struggled, but couldn't throw off his captor. He was dragged through the door on the left into the most terrifying room he had ever seen. There was a bed, but not one for sleeping on, because it had chains, and restraints all over it. There were scanners and needles attached to a beam above the bed. A woman walked up to him and grinned evilly. "Lets see how talented you are boy."

They lifted him up and strapped him to the bed He yelled and kicked, and then he thought desperately. _STOP!!!_ The two bots suddenly stopped, and grabbed their heads painfully. He smiled, and tried to break free from the restraints, but felt a terrible pain in the side of his head. He wasn't unconscious, but he was stunned. He could hear his audios ringing, and soon his whole body felt like it was on fire as dozens of needles pierced into him.

"Look at his spark reading! I've never seen anything like it. According to this, it can't be extinguished!" He heard the femme say from what seemed like far away.

"He's definitely a psychic. Contact Phobia, and tell him we have one for P.E.L.M." At that point the pain in Rampage's body grew too much for him, and he passed out.

"Why in the pit did we have to get stuck with them? They nearly got me fired today!" An orange mech fumed.

"Now dear, they meant no harm by it. They are three now." The green femme said to her husband. Over in the next room Stellar and Trioptica listened fearfully at the door.

"No harm my aft! I'm telling you, once they're old enough I'm sending them to a private school, and we'll try again to have a normal baby!"

The femme yelled tearfully. "How can you say that about our own sparklings?! I don't care if they're a little odd, they're still our children!"

Sounds from the other room had stopped abruptly as the chime of the doorbell was heard. The twins ran out of the room toward the door, both screaming "I'll get it!" Their mother ran to head them off, but they reached the door first and opened it.

Outside their door was a purple mech with visor like yellow optics. He smiled at the children politely, and looked at their mother. "Good evening madam. My name is Phobia. I'm from P.E.L.M academy, the preparation for exceptionally learned Maximals academy. We just recently opened our doors, and are now searching Cybertron for children who meet the required age and IQ. May I come in?"

She looked at him curiously, but nodded, and waved him into the living room where her husband was sitting on the couch. "Dear this is Phobia from P.E.L.M academy."

The mech smiled. "Come on in, would you like a drink? I've only got beer."

Phobia smiled. "No that's alright, thank you. Now as I told your wife, our school has just opened. We're now accepting students as young as two stellar cycles old. There is no charge to send your children to our school, we are completely government funded, and guarantee your children will receive a top quality education, leaving our school with job opportunities in the most advanced and coveted fields on Cybertron. I have a brochure here for you to look at."

The parents looked at the brochure eagerly. The femme glanced up at Phobia suspiciously. "How do you know if our children are qualified?"

"It's quite simple really. I have a scanner that can read a bot's IQ. It tells their IQ on this screen here, and if it's above 145, they are immediately accepted into our school. While you look at that further, I'll just take a look at their IQ's." The parents nodded, and Phobia waved for the children to approach. "What's your name young lady?"

The orange femme walked up to him shyly. "I'm Trioptica, I'm a Maximal, and this is my brother Stellar. We're twins."

"Really? That means you two must be very close right?" He said as he waved the scanner in front of Trioptica. He smiled widely. "Very good, now for you Stellar." Stellar approached looking nervous. Another wave of the scanner, and Phobia's face lit up. "I have good news parents, your children are gifted. Their IQ is at 157."

"Really?! I would have never thought it!" The mech said.

The femme looked at him suspiciously. "May I see that for a moment?" Phobia handed over the scanner, and she scanned her children. Both turned up at 157. She scanned herself, and it came up as 128. "Well this seems right. I hope you understand, we're not just going to hand off our children to just anybody who walks through our door."

Phobia nodded. "I understand entirely, however the term is going to be starting shortly, and they'll need time to settle into their new surroundings. We're really at the deadline. If you are still unsure, you can contact the school board, and inquire about us, but if you want them to attend the decision will have to be made tonight."

The femme looked aghast, but the mech moved in front of her. "Go get the phone, and call them! I don't want to pass up an opportunity like this. You two, go pack your things just to be on the safe side."

Stellar looked at his father sadly. "Where are we going daddy?"

He gave him a firm look. "If the school board confirms this man's story, you'll be going with him to a private school."

Trioptica ran toward her father, and latched onto his leg. "No daddy! I wanna stay with you and mommy!"

Just then their mother walked back into the room. "Well the board confirmed it, they also showed me a picture of you. Why didn't you say you were the headmaster?"

Phobia bowed. "I don't like to toot my own horn. As for their things, they won't need anything, they'll be given clean uniforms, and toiletries at the school."

"Can't I at least bring my earth dolly?" Trioptica asked timidly.

Phobia smiled. "Of course you can! Both of you go ahead and pick out what toy you want to bring with you. Just one though! If you do well in your studies you're given the chance to go into town once a month and pick out a brand new toy!"

The children smiled at the thought, and ran to their room to find their most cherished toys. A few minutes later they came back out, Trioptica holding a stuffed snow leopard, and Stellar a stuffed white tiger. Their mother hugged and kissed them both. "Now you be good for the teachers, I'll come to visit you as soon as I can!"

The mech walked up to them, and it seemed now that he was faced with the departure of his children, he was regretting it. He reached down and rubbed Stellar on the top of his head affectionately, and ran his hand down Trioptica's cheek sadly. "Don't pull any of the stunts you do at home."

"We won't daddy!" They said in unison. Phobia beckoned, and they walked through the door ahead of him, looking excited. When they got outside they gasped at the limo parked in front, the driver standing ready with the door open. "Wow!" they said together again.

"Hop in kids." They ran into the limo, and Phobia walked in after them as the driver shut the door, making sure the child proof lock was on. The twins bounced around happily for several minutes in the limo, until Phobia cleared his throat. They stopped and sat on either side of them. He put an arm around Trioptica. "You two sure are full of energy. I think children your age are so cute." He said running his fingers gently over her cheeks in a way unlike her father had.

Stellar watched Phobia, suddenly nervous. He could feel Trioptica beginning to feel scared too. After stroking her cheeks a few more times Phobia pushed her down onto the seat, and removed her lower plate. "Get off her!" Stellar yelled.

Phobia looked back, and swiped at him, hitting him in the stomach, and sending him to the front of the limo. He curled up in a ball, and winced. Trioptica looked at her brother, then back at Phobia who had removed his lower plate as well. He gave her a wicked grin. "It's better if you don't fight, it won't hurt then... much."

She screamed as something was thrust inside her. She could feel mech fluid flowing from between her legs. "I said get off her!" She heard Stellar yell. Still inside her Phobia paused, and she heard a loud clang, and a sickening thud. She looked over, and saw her brother lying face first on the floor, mech fluid dripping slowly from the side of his head.

She screamed as he continued thrusting inside her. After what felt like an eternity he let out a strangled cry, and pulled out of her, getting up, and moving to the floor where Stellar was lying. He began removing his lower plate as well. "Please don't! Don't hurt my brother!"

Phobia looked at her angrily. "Shut up or when I'm done with him, you'll get it again!" She watched in horror as he flipped Stellar onto his stomach, and thrust into his ass.

She felt a deep rage well up inside her. She let out a cry of rage, and jumped toward Phobia. He turned and caught her by the throat before she even landed on him. He started applying pressure, choking her. She tried to punch him, but everything was starting to spin. Before she lost consciousness, she saw Stellar's optics flicker online, and he looked at her fearfully.

"Sis. Sis you awake?" Trioptica opened her optics, and pain washed over her. She cried out, and tried to sit up, but Stellar took her, and cradled her. "It's ok, you'll be fine."

She sniffed and looked around. They were in a room with a cold metal wall at the back, and where there should have been three other walls, there were forcefields with small square shaped holes in them near the center. A voice echoed from their left. "Did she wake up Stellar?"

Stellar nodded, and helped Trioptica sit up. "Trioptica this is Rampage. He says he was brought in just before we were."

Trioptica sat up, and looked at Rampage. "Where exactly are we? We thought we were going to a school."

Rampage snorted. "I don't know if I pity you, or if I'm jealous of you. You were taken away from your family, and lied to about where you were going... Though I didn't have a family to get lied to. I'm an orphan, they just lucked out to find me."

"But what do they want with us?" She said near tears.

Rampage looked at her calmly. "You have powers too don't you?" They nodded. "I think that's what they're doing, collecting kids like us to study them."

"No way!" Stellar said. "The Maximal government wouldn't let us get experimented on."

Rampage snorted. "Please don't go all high and mighty Maximal on me. It was your police that sent me here, and did this to me." He showed them the unmistakable marks from needles in his arms and legs.

Trioptica started sobbing. "I'd rather be dead!" Stellar hugged her, and tried to sooth her, but he was crying too.

Rampage turned to ignore them, but then he remembered what Streamline had said to him. He got up painfully, and moved over to the small square that he could use to reach into their cell. "Come here you two." They crawled over to him painfully, and each took one of his hands. "We have to be brave now. If we're gonna get through this we have to be strong, and keep hoping things will go right. They always do!"

Trioptica sniffled, and smiled. "You're right. They can't keep us here forever. Someone will find us soon!"

"That's the spirit!" Rampage said. They smiled at each other, and let go. "So tell me, what are your powers?"

Trioptica and Stellar smiled at one another, and Rampage was lifted off the ground. At first he yelled, but then he started laughing. "We can move anything!" Stellar said. They lifted themselves up as well, and began floating around their cells, and for the first time since they woke up in that horrifying place, they found that they were quite happy.

The young femme moved quickly through the crowded street, trying not to make optic contact with anyone else. Finally she turned into an alley, and sat down next to an older femme who was wrapped in a dirty blanket, and was otherwise naked. "Did you find it Airrizzon?"

"Yes mommy. Here's your medicine." She said handing a small wrapped package to her mother.

The femme opened it eagerly. Inside was a bottle of pills. She opened it, and swallowed two. After several minutes she took a deep breath and looked relieved. "Thank you Rizzy."

The two femmes sat on a crate silently for several minutes. Finally Airrizzon spoke again. "Mommy why do I keep having to take these pills from the store? I'm scared someone's gonna see me."

Her mother hugged her and coughed slightly. "Ever since we met the humans, all our medicine is made from herbs on their planet. You always did have a way with plants sweetling."

Airrizzon rubbed a bit of mold on the crate with her fingers, and made it crawl around her hand. "Yeah, but why do you need them?"

The older femme hugged her tighter. "Sometimes life's unfair sweetling. If we had a proper home and some money maybe I wouldn't need these pills... Sometimes mommies have to do... difficult things to keep food in their sparklings tummies, and there's always a consequence for everything you do in life." She noticed her daughter's confused expression, and sighed. "You'll understand when you're older sweetling. Run along now, go see Mr Tearhide. Maybe he has some food for you."

"Mr Tearhide doesn't like me anymore..." Airrizzon said sadly.

Her mother smiled. "Nonsense Rizzy. He forgave you for what happened last week. Now off with you, go on!" She said in a playful voice. Airrizzon turned around to go down the alley a bit further, and started talking to an old mech.

"I hate to see something like this. A child trapped in a world of poverty, with nowhere to go but down that spiraling path."

The femme turned around. A purple bot with yellow optics was looking at her sadly. "Yes, my dear little one will have a hard life. To be honest I'm surprised the Matrix hasn't taken me yet. Perhaps my illness will take me once I know she's in good hands."

"I feel this is not a chance meeting. Tell me, is your child smart?" Phobia asked.

"Oh yes she's very smart. A little odd sometimes. You see, she can make the mold around here move. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen her do it."

Phobia smiled widely. "Ive heard of that. It's a recent glitch in circuitry that often comes along with high intelligence. Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Phobia, headmaster of P.E.L.M academy."

The femme gasped. "That high class private school for gifted children? Oh please Phobia tell me you'll take Airrizzon! I wouldn't be able to let her go if it weren't for the fact that I won't be around to raise her much longer!"

Phobia bowed. "I only live to improve the quality of life here on Cybertron among our youngest residents. No gifted child should be without an education."

"Airrizzon, come here please!" She called. Her yelling brought on another coughing fit, and she was barely able to wipe the mech fluid off her lips before her daughter arrived.

The child looked at Phobia, let out a small yell, and clung to her mother's leg. "Mommy, who's this?"

"This is Phobia sweetling, a teacher at a very high class school. He wants to take you there to get an education."

"NO! I won't leave you mommy I won't!" Airrizzon cried in anguish.

"Don't worry sweetheart, you'll have everything you ever wanted there. You'll get three meals a day, a warm bed, and lots of friends. Who knows you might even get to grow up and be a senator, or ambassador!" The femme said to the small sparkling holding onto her leg, peering at the mech in front of her.

"But mommy I wanna stay with you!" The sparkling yelled.  
The fembot got down on the child's level, and took her shoulders gently, looking her in the optics. "Rizzy, you deserve better than this. I can't raise you like this, not since daddy joined Primus." The fembot said sadly.  
The child looked around her. An old back alleyway had been redecorated by the bots living there so there were crates and skus separating living areas. Her little home for the first two Stellar cycles of her life, was hung with tattered cloth to keep leering eyes from such a tender child, and she slept on a sku with her mother, pilled high with moldy rags.  
She looked up at her mother afraid. "Please don't send me away. I didn't mean to make that mold attach itself to Mr. Tearhide! I promise I'll be good from now on, just don't send me away!"

The bot with the yellow optic lens, and purple face bent down and took the child's hand. "Don't worry Ma'am, we get this reaction a lot. Such young children are terrified to leave their families, but once they see the grounds they're so excited they forget to even write home!"

The child began to quiver. The fembot made a sad smile. "You said it's forbidden to leave campus, and I have no real mailing address." She said with a wave. "I can come and see her though?" "Whenever you like Ma'am. We encourage it." The fembot and child smiled at one another.  
"You'll come see me mommy?" The sparkling asked.  
The fembot smiled, and quickly brought her hand to her mouth to cover a coughing fit. Airrizzon didn't miss the shine of silverfish blue liquid, before she put her hand behind her back. "You know it Rizzy. Get going dear, they have so much to teach you." The child smiled to her mother, beginning to understand why she was giving her away, and was grateful she wouldn't suffer the same fate. As she left she heard her mother yell, "Always do well Airrizzon! Make me proud and grow up to be a successful woman!"

"I will mommy!" She yelled back. Phobia took her hand and led her out of the alley. After walking less than a block they stopped in front of a limo. "Is this my school bus?" She asked.

"You could say that. Climb in." He said with a wide grin. When they were in, Airrizzon started looking out the window fascinated. She had never gone so fast in her life! She felt him put an arm around her shoulder. "You're amused by such simple things aren't you?" She nodded still looking out the window. "Want to know what amuses me?" Before she could respond he had grabbed her, and thrown her down against the seat. She screamed, but he ignored it, and ripped off her lower plate. He held her underneath him while he removed his, and penetrated her.

She started crying. "Let me go, please, I wanna go back to mommy! Let me go back to mommy!"

"And once she dies in a few days let you be all alone out there? No I think it's better if you stay with me. You'll be with me for a very long time Airrizzon."

It had been two days since Trioptica, Stellar, and Rampage had been captured. In that time they had learned to fear the sound of footsteps. Whenever they heard that noise it meant that one of them would be taken in for testing, which often involved them being hooked up to machines that zapped them, or them being beaten unless they displayed their powers for the doctors, and every time at the end of the session they were raped.

They had been playing a game with each other, seeing if Rampage could properly guess which one of them was thinking what, since according to him they seemed to have a telepathic link, so it was hard for him to read their thoughts. They stopped laughing as soon as they heard the footsteps. "Where should we toss this one?"

"Just put her in with the twins. Phobia says he wants the gutter slag to rot on his own for a while till we can complete more tests on him."

They all moved to the back of their cells as the guards approached. One of them was carrying a small silver femme. "If either of you try anything, you'll be in the lab for a week!" The lowered the forcefield, and tossed the tiny femme inside.

She let out a small cry as she landed, and one of the guards kicked her. Trioptica tried to stand up to help her, but Stellar held her back. The guard snorted at the trio, turned the forcefield back on, and walked away. As soon as they were gone Trioptica ran to the child, and took her in her arms. "Poor little thing! She's so tiny!"

The child opened her optics, and looked at Trioptica. She saw the kind look on her face, and clung to her sobbing. "I want my mommy!"

"Oh Stellar, she's so scared! It's ok little one. I'm Trioptica, a three year old Maximal, and this is my twin brother Stellar. What's your name?" Trioptica said gently.

She sniffed. "My name's Airrizzon. I'm two, and I'm a Maximal."

Rampage stuck his head into the square. "Why are you here Airrizzon? What's your psychic power?"

She looked at him slightly afraid. "I make plants move and grow. Mommy sent me here because..."

Rampage had a sour look on his face. "Because she didn't like your powers?"

Airrizzon screwed up her face, looking ready to cry again. "Cause mommy's sick and she's gonna die!" She wailed. She clung to Trioptica, who held her tightly.

"Rampage, can you look into her mind, and tell us what happened to her? I don't think she can say it right now." Stellar said.

Rampage nodded and closed his optics. Airrizzon gasped, and heard a calm voice in her head. _It's ok Airrizzon. I'm going to bring up your memories, so we know what happened, that way you don't have to say it if it'll make you cry._ He felt a small bubble of happiness inside the child, and smiled. He watched her short life with a look of horror on his face. "She had it about as bad as I did. Her father died in a gun fight, and her mom..." He looked at Airrizzon, not sure if she would understand what he was about to say. "Her mom became a prostitute to pay for food, until she contracted an illness. She's been living on the streets of Cybertropolis her whole life."

Trioptica turned Airrizzon's face toward her. "And after all that you wound up here? You poor girl. Don't worry I'll be your friend from now on!"

Airrizzon smiled at Trioptica. "As long as we're best friends." She said as they embraced. That night the three of them curled up together to sleep, and the two girls held onto each other all night.


	2. The Next Step

The next step.

_This tale begins a few weeks after the first. As the brave young sparklings try to adjust to their surroundings, they're oblivious to the politics surrounding their stay in P.E.L.M._

Phobia sat nervously on the bench outside the council chambers. It was a pivotal moment for his plans with P.E.L.M. "Doctor Phobia, the council is ready to see you." He jumped as a femme poked her head through the chamber doors.

He took a deep breath, and walked inside. As soon as he entered the room, he began walking with more confidence. _I can't let them know how nervous I am!_ He bowed low, facing the council. "It's an honor to be in your presence council members. How may I be of service to you and Cybertron?"

All the members were sitting in seats, their identities protected by the shadows of the room. The lighting had been carefully manipulated here so that the council would always appear to be no more than large shadows, while the person speaking to them was fully illuminated.

The member sitting at the head of the council spoke. "Phobia, six stellar cycles ago, we passed a bill that allowed for our people to undergo an upgrade that would allow them to procreate. We soon discovered that there was a glitch in over 75% of the sparks created in that manner. These Maximal and Predicon children can cause energon surges in bots, read their core processors unlocking secrets like bank account numbers, and in some cases I've even heard of those who can control the elements. We allowed you to open your laboratory in the hope that you could find what caused these program malfunctions, and now we hear reports that these children are being tortured while under your care. Explain yourself!"

He bowed again. "Council, in order to determine the cause of these glitches, the tests we must use are quite extravagant. Considering we're dealing with children who are exceptionally powerful, we must conduct these experiments using the same techniques often used by human cults to make them more compliant, so they won't lash out at the doctors, and turn their powers against us."

The members talked among themselves in surprise for a few moments, but Phobia was gratified to hear that a lot of them were supporting his methods. "Order! Now Phobia, it's been told that these methods can cause severe mental problems. Is that a risk in your experiments?"

He nodded. "Unfortunately yes, but this is where we have to weigh the risks. If we didn't use this method, we would certainly fail in our research, and be overthrown by these children. And if we fail, within the next twenty years nearly half of our population would be made up of these psychics as we call them. We would be at their mercy. It is sad, but the children we apprehend now will be the key to fixing this glitch that will become a plague on Cybertron. Surely the sanity of a few bots is a worthy sacrifice when in a few years we may be facing the total destruction of our species due to this glitch."

The members erupted into talk, all of them in support of Phobia. He hid his smile. After a few moments they quieted down again, and another member spoke. "Head elder, should we ban the procedure to allow children to be born until this is resolved?"

He shook his head. "No, we don't want to alert the public to this. If we tell bots they can't have children there will be questions. The population wouldn't understand what we're doing here. Phobia, you have the full support of the Maximal elders. We will spread the word that your 'school' is of high quality and standing, and will ensure it remains that way, but remember, be discrete."

"I will Elders. I thank you for your time." He bowed once more, and walked away. "Everything is going just the way I planned it."

Trioptica looked around her into the other cells. They had been filling up very quickly over the past few days as more children with powers were brought in from all over Cybertron and the colonies. Though she had been friendly toward them, they never had contact with anyone other than those in the cells next to them, so there was little she could do to comfort the others.

Suddenly there was a commotion at the end of the hall. She could hear several children screaming and crying, which wasn't completely unusual, except she had never heard so many start up at once. She leaned close to the forcefield, and gasped. A guard was carrying a charred shell of one of the children. As he walked past the cells more children spotted him, and cried out in fear and anguish. "What's going on Tri?"

She turned around and saw Airrizzon moving toward her. She ran toward her, and pulled her against her chest. "Don't look Airry!"

Airrizzon struggled against Trioptica, and just as the guard walked past, she poked her head over her shoulder, and screamed. Trioptica couldn't help herself, and looked too. She blanched, and ran to the corner of the cell to throw up. "Tri it's Screech! He and I were always taken to the lab together!" She heard Airrizzon yell tearfully.

She straightened up, and walked over to Airrizzon, who was kneeling next to the barrier, tears shimmering on her face. She sat down next to her, and hugged her. "It's ok now Airry. There's no more pain for him in the Matrix."

Screech was only the first of many to lose their sparks during the testing, and it was no surprise. One of the tests that they were put through daily was raw energon tolerance. They were placed in a room with raw energon cubes, and something for them to manipulate using their powers, whatever they may be. The children were told that they were to use their powers constantly while in the room, or when they passed out, they would be left in the room. Eventually the raw energon would blow their circuits, and with no armor to protect them, their circuits would eventually explode.

It was during one of these tests that Stellar began something that would change the lives of the children in P.E.L.M forever. Before he was placed in the room, he had been raped by two of the guards in their break room, and was already exhausted. They had placed him in the room with a bucket of water, and told him to manipulate it, but he knew he couldn't control the water long enough to satisfy the doctors. In his anger and fear, he used what little energy he had left to manipulate the energon instead.

He could see the doctors watching him through a window in an adjoining room. He looked at the energon, and made it float up. He could see the doctors on the other side talking rapidly. He looked at the window and focused. _Go through it like it was water._ He thought, and he raised the energon to the window. It rushed through the window, leaving a small ripple in the glass as it did. Perhaps he did it subconsciously, or perhaps it was just that unstable energon can't bear to be touched by even a feather, but as soon as it was in the other room it exploded.

He screamed in terror as the glass shattered, and a wave of heat and fire blew into his room. He moved against the wall, burned from the heat waves alone. He heard something thud next to him, and looked down to see the charred shell of one of the doctors. Overwhelmed with fear and exhaustion, he finally passed out.

He woke up in the lab with Phobia over him. "Thought you'd stage a little rebellion did you Stellar? Well the deaths of those five bots are on your head boy. If only I didn't need you so much for our experiments I'd kill you for what you did!"

Stellar tried to shake his head, but found he was in restraints. "I didn't mean to kill them, honest!" He yelled.

"Bull shit!" Phobia cried. He pulled off his lower plate, and climbed on top of Stellar, penetrating him, and thrusting wildly. Stellar cried out in fear and pain. "You thought you'd get even with us did you? Thought you'd pay us back for those little brats who were too weak to survive? Maybe you even thought you could escape if you got rid of them, but you're wrong, there is no escape for you or any of your little friends!"

It was as though a light went on in Stellar's head. _If I could do that much damage to them by __accident, how much more damage can we cause them if we all worked together to beat them? A rebellion huh? I like the sound of that._

It was a long time before he could relay his plan to the others, over a month in fact. He was kept in the lab for a week, constantly being raped, then repaired just enough for him to survive it happening again. All the doctors, guards, and of course Phobia had their way with him, perhaps as their own type of revenge against him for killing their comrades.

Most of that week was a blur of pain, shame, and exhaustion. He was tossed into his cell with his sister and Airrizzon barely alive. It took three weeks for him to regain his senses, and come out of stasis lock. "Stellar, you awake?"

He turned his head, and smiled at Airrizzon. "Hey Airry." She began crying, and he reached out and hugged her. "It's ok, I'm fine now. Where's Tri?"

She sniffled, and pointed to his left. Curled up next to him holding his now ragged stuffed tiger was Trioptica, fast asleep. "Every time they come to get her, she kicks and screams. Other than when she's taken away, she hasn't left your side."

He smiled, and rolled over to hug her. She sighed in her sleep and he smiled. "Don't worry sis, I have a plan."

The next day all the children were herded into a large dining room with tables seating six. In front of each seat was a plate filled with delicious smelling food. The children stood against the wall, hungrily staring at the food. Phobia walked in. "Well children we're all here. Have a seat at the tables." They quickly scrambled to find seats, not daring to delay for fear of his wrath. "This is the only time you'll get to eat together. Since we're all one big family now, I decided to give you the chance to meet one another, as well as take this opportunity to inform you all that extra security has now been placed all around the grounds ever since our little accident a while ago." He said giving Stellar a cold look. "Enjoy your meals."

Rampage looked at the others at the table. "Somethings not right about this. Why are they feeding us good food?"

Airrizzon poked a piece of meat on her plate, and pulled her had away gasping. Trioptica put a hand on her shoulder concerned. "What's wrong?"

"It's poison!" They all stared at her in shock. "I can feel it. It's an organic poison." She looked around the dining room. "It's in all our foods."

A pretty little golden girl looked at her terrified. "Why would they poison us if they want to experiment on us?"

"Maybe that's just it, another experiment to see how many of us can survive organic poisoning." Rampage said.

Stellar looked at Airrizzon. "Can you extract the poison?"

She nodded. "Yes, but I can't get it off the other kids tables without anyone noticing. I'd need some kind of distraction."

Trioptica grimaced, and took a deep breath. "_**It's poisoned, don't eat it, they're trying to poison us!**_"

The reaction was instant. The children began screaming, and trying to run out of the room. Through the commotion Airrizzon focused on all the plates, and small globs of green fluid flew toward her hand. She saw a guard running toward them, and managed to get the last piece in her hand before he arrived. He pulled out a baton, and struck Trioptica repeatedly in the head.

Stellar screamed in protest, and tried to get up to stop him, but Rampage held him back. Airrizzon looked down at her hand, and a firm look of resolve crossed her face. "Hey guard!" The guard looked up, and the glob of pure organic poison launched from her hand, and flew into his mouth.

The guard gagged for a moment, his optics flickered, and he fell to the floor. She watched horrified at what she had done, as his spark left his body, and flew up out of the building to rejoin the matrix.

"_Enough!_" Phobia yelled. The children went silent instantly. "If any one of you even thinks of not eating you'll be in the lab for a month!" He noticed the guard on the floor, and scowled. "Who did this?" He whispered in a deadly voice.

A deep green mech who was sitting at their table answered. "He was hitting the girl so hard, his baton recoiled, and hit him in the head. He fell back, hitting it again on the chair, and we saw his spark leave his body."

Phobia glared at them all, then waved his hand. "Someone remove his corpse, and take that one back to her cell. The rest of you get eating!"

The green boy leaned toward Airrizzon. "Is it safe now?"

She nodded, and whispered. "Yep, the guard got it all... Just pretend you're scared to eat it, like the other tables."

They all ate the food a little hesitantly. Finally Stellar leaned over to the boy. "You really saved Airrizzon's life. What's your name?"

"I'm Terminator, and this is my cell mate Sonar." He said, then pointed at the golden femme.

The femme looked at Rampage and blushed. "We're in the cell right next to you. Why don't you ever say hi?"

Rampage began blushing, and muttered. "I'm not good at talking to pretty femmes."

Sonar smiled widely. "You're doing fine so far. Since we have to keep eating, lets talk more later when we're put back in our cells."

Rampage looked delighted, and nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah! I mean, I'd love to talk to you more."

Terminator, Airrizzon, and Stellar all looked at each other and smiled.

"It seems we were right to assume these psychics were a danger to our society Phobia." The head elder said.

Phobia was once again in front of the council of elders. After the six deaths of various staff members, the council had called him for an emergency meeting. "Elders I am greatly aggrieved at the loss of my staff, but I think this proves more than anything that all psychics on Cybertron should be placed under the supervision of P.E.L.M."

"The council is in agreement. We have found that not all of the parents have permitted their children to go to P.E.L.M, so we will have to take more drastic measures to ensure that all psychics are placed in P.E.L.M. From now on all children born will be tested immediately to see if they carry the psychic glitch. We will put out a warning that the birth procedure has a high risk of children being born with a fatal glitch that kills them within thirty nanoclicks. From now on any sparkling born with the psychic glitch will be brought immediately to P.E.L.M, and the parents will be told that it had the glitch and died."

Phobia smiled. "We will need more funding for a nursery. They won't be able to survive the testing until they are at least one stellar cycle old."

The head elder nodded. "It will be done immediately. As for the remainder of the children out there, it shouldn't be hard to locate them all. We know how to detect the glitch in bots, so within a few months we should have all of the psychics on Cybertron rounded up."

The children watched curiously through their cells as the guards carried cribs into an area adjunct to their cells. Terminator turned to look at those in the cell next to him. "You don't think they're bringing in newborns now do you?"

Rampage snorted. "I'm surprised they didn't start sooner. Those poor parents not even knowing what's happening to their babies."

Trioptica watched as the guard dropped a crib on his toe, and swore loudly. "Guys we can't just break out of here, we have to get this place shut down. In just a few months look at how full this place has become."

They looked around. Sure enough all the cells were full. The day before they had moved Sonar and Terminator into Rampages cell, and it wouldn't be long until theirs was packed with more children too. Stellar moved next to the forcefield and spoke quietly. "From now on lets try and steal what we can from the labs to make our escape easier."

They all nodded in agreement.

A few days later the children were awoken by loud cries. The door to their area was opened, and Phobia walked in, followed by several guards carrying squirming bundles. "Ok toss the one we split into the cell with the street slag, and his friends, they're all in the same category." A guard moved toward Rampage's cell, and placed two babies into it. They looked kind of like twins. Phobia smiled evilly. "Moondance and Sundance." He moved to the cell where Stellar, Trioptica and Airrizzon were. "Lets put the Reploid in here for now." The guard set down a strange looking baby with tufts of hair on her head in the cell. "Lets say... Soultail. Since we ran out of room in the nursery, if they die here, I'm not to blame. You brats are responsible for keeping these babies alive, and it's on your heads if they die."

He moved toward another cell, and continued passing out infants to the children. Instantly all the kids from the two cells moved toward their new charges. Sonar picked up the twin girls, and smiled. "Poor babies, what do you think he meant when he said 'split'?"

Rampage frowned, but Terminator let out a humorless laugh. "Isn't it obvious? All three of us have a high positron count in our sparks, making them indestructible, so probably these two do too."

Sonar looked at him in horror. "You mean they used to be the same baby?! Primus that Phobia... I didn't think he could get much worse."

Trioptica and Stellar had backed against the wall staring at the baby in their cell nervously. "It's not like any Cybertronian I've ever seen." Stellar said.

Airrizzon moved toward the baby curiously. "Airrizzon don't, you don't know what it is!" Trioptica yelled.

Airrizzon blinked at them, then looked at the baby. Ignoring gasps from her cell mates, she picked up the strange looking baby. "She's so tiny. She was probably just born." She looked at the baby and smiled. "Phobia called you Soultail. Do you like your name?" Soultail smiled at Airrizzon, who moved to the back of the cell, and sat against the wall rocking her. "Don't worry Soultail, I'll take care of you."

She looked at the others who were watching her carefully. Finally Trioptica smiled. "Why am I not surprised? Ok Airrizzon, if you want to take care of her, you go ahead, but don't come crying to me if she zaps you with some weird power stronger than us."

Airrizzon gave Trioptica a solemn look. "Even if she does, I don't care. She can't take care of herself yet. She needs me."

Stellar and Trioptica shared a look of concern, but after glancing at Airrizzon dipping her finger into a bowl of thin gruel, and feeding Soultail, they couldn't help but smile.

In the next cell Sonar was attempting to do the same thing, but Sundance kept squirming in her arms. "Terminator, can you hold her, so I can feed the other one?"

Terminator nodded, and took the baby. Immediately she stopped squirming, and looked up at him with adoration. "I think she likes me." Smiling he sat down against the wall, and started feeding her too.

Sonar smiled at the two, then grinned ear to ear at Moondance. Rampage sat down next to her as she fed the baby. After a few moments he spoke. "You're really good with kids."

Sonar smiled at him. "Thanks." She propped Moondance over her shoulder to burp her, and gave Rampage a small kiss on the cheek before pacing around the cell trying to burp the baby. Rampage touched his cheek gently, and smiled.

Though the food didn't have as many nutrients as were needed for babies to flourish, the children in the middle cells were grateful that Sundance, Moondance, and Soultail seemed to be surviving. There had been many tearful days when they would watch the still form of a baby being carried out of a cell, the children who had tried to keep them alive sobbing wildly.

They all knew that the odds of their little babies living were slim, but they did everything they could to keep them healthy, like trying to keep most of the floor free from refuse and mold, and never falling asleep while lying next to them, because it would only take a few moments for the babies to suffocate if the children rolled on top of them. There was always one child in their cells awake to tend to the babies needs.

It was during the middle of the night, when Trioptica, who despite her initial fears of Soultail, was holding her as she slept, quietly talking with Rampage who was cradling Moondance and Sundance happily, that a loud ruckus was heard down the hall. "Let me go you murderers!"

All the children woke up, and looked curiously up the hall, where a pink girl was being dragged toward them. "Shut up you little freak!" The guard yelled, punching the girl in the stomach. He opened the cell next to Trioptica's, and threw her in.

The boy in that cell, who they hadn't spoken to much because he hadn't been given a child to care for, and often went through various moods crawled over to her. "You ok?"

She sat up and hugged him fearfully, and he hugged her back. Trioptica walked over to the hole in the forcefield. "What's your name kid?"

The girl looked at her fearfully. "Pinkpanther. Where am I? Who are these people?"

The boy looked at her sadly. "This is P.E.L.M, a lab for experimenting on psychic children. My name's Tyranno."

Pinkpanther looked at him and sobbed. "They killed my whole family, everyone in the tribe."

Trioptica looked at her sadly. " I didn't even know there were tribes on Cybertron. What was the name of it?"

"The Quatver tribe. We're a mix of Predicons and Maximals. We're very peaceful and keep to ourselves. I don't know why they attacked us..." She began sobbing again.

Tyranno let go of her, and looked angry. "You shouldn't be crying so much you know, it's a waste of time feeling sorry for yourself when you're here!"

Trioptica wished she could strike Tyranno. Pinkpanther looked at him shocked and hurt. "Why are you being so mean to me all of a sudden?!"

He gave her an apologetic look. "Sorry, I can't help it, my mood just changes so fast for no reason. The doctors here say it's called bipolar."

Pinkpanther gave him a sad smile. "It's ok, you can't help it. I guess we'll have to get used to each other. Who knows how long we're gonna be stuck here."

Trioptica looked at her sadly. "For the rest of our lives, though we plan to escape as soon as we can."

Tyranno gave her a cold look. "I always heard you guys talking about it. Think you're just gonna leave here, and let the rest of us die huh?"

Trioptica gave him a look to match his. "As a matter of fact we want to get everybody out that we can, but if you're gonna be rude to us maybe we should let you stay here and rot!"

Pinkpanther moved close to the forcefield. "Please don't. I can't stand the thought of anyone else dying because of these people. If you can get out of here, will you let us come with you?"

Trioptica looked at the girl, and her spark melted. "Of course I will. I wouldn't let you be stuck in here." She looked at Tyranno and sighed. "The same goes for you, when we escape, you can come along too."

Tyranno smiled. "Thanks. I'm sorry if I've been awful to you before."

Trioptica looked at the two of them, and chuckled. "It's ok. It's like she said, you can't help it. If you promise to help us get supplies to escape during the tests, you can come with us, but just so you know, it may be a long time before we actually make it out of here."

He smiled even wider. "That's ok. It just gives me more time to tick off those doctors." He smiled at Pinkpanther, and spontaneously hugged her.

Trioptica moved back toward the other wall, and smiled at Rampage. "The resistance is growing. Soon we'll be able to get outta here."

Trioptica shook her head sadly and looked down at Soultail. "Not as soon as they all think. Rampage we can't risk a breakout with the babies! It'll be years until we escape now."

Rampage looked down at the two he was holding, then smiled. "That just means we'll have three more to help with the escape plans once they grow up a bit."

Trioptica smiled, and looked down at Soultail, who was starting to fall back asleep now that the loud noises had faded. She put her hand down toward the girl, who curled her hand around one of her fingers. "When that day comes we'll all get out of here together, I promise!"


	3. The Helpers

The Helpers.

Terminator sat nervously in what appeared to be a very nice room. There was a dark mech sitting across from him, looking at him patiently, a small smile on his face. "Come on Terminator, you're teachers don't keep sending you in here for nothing, tell me what the other kids are doing to you."

Terminator continued to shake, and started making small buzzing noises as he spoke. "It'z not the kidz, the kidz are nize to me..."

The mech looked at him curiously. "Terminator why are you making that sound? You were talking fine the last time we spoke."

He continued to buzz while rocking back and forth. "I hear it all the time... When it'z over I hear it... It'z a nice zound... Mean'z it'z over for today..."

The mech leaned closer to Terminator looking eager, yet slightly afraid. "What does that mean, when it's over? When what's over?"

Terminator leaned close to the desk, his optics wide with fear. "The torture! Phobia'z torture!"

Phobia sat quietly in his office reviewing a file, frowning slightly. A knock was heard at the door, and he set down the file. "Enter."

A dark colored bot walked into the room looking furious. "You've received my reports I take it?"

Phobia patted the data pad gently, a cold look on his face. "Yes I was just reviewing them. You seem to have some strange ideas about what we do here Professor Darkness."

Darkness walked up to the desk, and slammed his hand against the table. "They're not ideas they're fact. That poor boy Terminator has been in to see me so much recently for some kind of trauma, and he's not the only one! Rampage, Sonar, all three of those students are in a terrible state, and they all say it's because of you!"

Phobia shook his head sadly. "Darkness you should know how children act toward authority, you have a son of your own I believe, they defy it, they fear it, and they'll look for any reason to get away from it, even coming up with a cock and bull story like torture from the headmaster of their school."

Darkness glared at Phobia. "I'm a highly trained psychiatrist, and have worked with children since before there were any on Cybertron! I've been dealing with young minds ever since Cybertron began employing bots on Earth. Trust me Phobia they are not faking, and once I have enough testimony from those children I'll see you removed from this school!"

Darkness stormed out of the office, and Phobia scratched his chin. "Many have tried over the last ten years, and all have failed. You will be no different."

Trioptica walked calmly into her cell, giving a final cold look at her guards as they walked away, sealing the forcefield behind them. As soon as they were out of site she ran to the corner of the room and vomited. Airrizzon, walked up to her, and put a hand on her shoulder. "What's wrong? You've been doing that every day for Decacycles!"

Trioptica wiped her mouth, and shook her head. "It's nothing, I think I've just caught a virus." She glanced up to see Stellar and Soultail giving her a concerned look. "Really it's nothing."

Stellar sighed, and continued talking to Soultail. "The key to not getting caught is to always keep your optics open, to be aware of those around you, and if they're watching you. Wait until that small voice inside you says it's safe, then take what you can reach and stow it away under your headband. Your hair should hide whatever you're taking."

Soultail nodded at Stellar, and curiously touched the top of his head. "Why don't any of you have any hair?"

Airrizzon moved next to her and smiled. "Because you're hidden power is luck silly. None of use were lucky enough to be born with hair, especially as nice as yours." She tickled Soultail who giggled like a child much younger than ten. Airrizzon picked her up, and moved her over to a corner. "Ok sweetling time for bed, you had a long day today in the energon room."

"But it really didn't hurt me at all! I feel wide awake. I want to stay up with the rest of you, and help with the plans!"

Airrizzon laughed. "You'll be old enough to stay up soon, but if you don't go to bed and pretend to be tired they might not give you such easy tests tomorrow." She gave Soultail a kiss on the cheek, and Soultail smiled, curling up in a ball.

Stellar moved to the front of the cell, nodded at Tyranno and Pinkpanther in greeting, and turned to Rampage's cell with a look of amusement on his face as he struggled to put Sundance and Moondance to sleep.

"But we don't wanna..." Moondance said.

"Go to sleep!" Sundance finished. "We wanna...

"Stay up with you!" Moondance said fuming.

Rampage sighed and rubbed his forehead. Terminator came up behind them, and scooped them up in his arms. "The sun haz set, the night haz come, and now it'z time for little onez to go offline until the dawn..."

"So we can grow up big and strong!" They said in unison. They both cuddled into Terminator, identical looks of love on their faces.

He lay them down in the far corner, and kissed them both. "Good night little botz." He walked over to Sonar and Rampage near the front of the room, sat down, and faced Stellar. "It'z gotta be soon. They're getting worze."

Stellar nodded sadly at Terminator. "I know old friend, I can tell. You really can't control it anymore?"

Terminator shook his head, and Sonar moved closer to the forcefield. "All three of us are being put through more and more every day. I'm starting to have trouble with my memory." She looked at her hands sadly. "Sometimes I have to really focus to remember Sundance and Moondance's names, and I love those girls so much!"

Stellar nodded. "I know. They put you five through the worst of the testing, though I'm really afraid for Soultail too. Soon they're going to figure out what we've known all along, that she can't be harmed by energon. I fear what they'll do to her when that day comes."

Pink moved close to the forcefield. "Tyranno and I are facing a lot more problems too. Lately our illnesses have started interfering with our powers. Yesterday I was working on a set of blocks, and I became so agitated they began flying all over the room, hitting the doctors."

Tyranno hugged her tightly. "So that's why they'd sedated you yesterday. My Pink. I know what you're going through. When my temper flairs I can hardly control my powers either."

Stellar looked at them sadly. "I think we're all in agreement that we've waited long enough. The sparklings can make it out with just a little assistance from us." Suddenly he snapped his head toward the back of the room, opposite Soultail where Trioptica was kneeling. "What are you doing?!" He yelled.

The others looked, and it immediately became apparent. She started punching herself fiercely in the stomach, sobbing all the while. "Tri no!" Airrizzon cried, running to her.

"I can't... I won't... I won't have his baby!" She cried out. She punched herself one more time, and gave a sharp cry of agony as a strange, discolored fluid began running down her legs.

Soultail, Moondance, and Sundance all woke up to her cries, and ran toward her. Soultail clung to her looking terrified. "Trioptica what's wrong?"

She cried out a second time, more fluids gushing down her legs. Stellar ran to Soultail and pried her off of Trioptica. "Don't let them see this! It's ok, she'll be ok soon." He said hugging Soultail to him, shielding her from Trioptica.

Rampage and Sonar grabbed the twins and did the same, Terminator in between them, stroking the girls heads.

Airrizzon moved next to Trioptica, who tried to push her away, but she held her tightly. "It's ok... You're not alone for this."

For several hours they held the young children, while watching in a mix of sadness and fear as Trioptica gave birth to an underdeveloped, and obviously dead baby. When at last she pushed out the shell, they all gagged. Probably from it's mother's attack, the baby's head had been split open. Trioptica tried to sit up, looking both ashamed and afraid. "Let me see my baby..."

Airrizzon pushed her down. "No." She said tearfully.

Trioptica shoved Airrizzon aside. "It's my baby! I have to know what I did to my baby!" She looked between her legs, and a look of pure horror crossed her face. Gently she picked up the little body, and held it in her arms. It was so small it could almost fit in the palm of her hand. "What have I done? My... baby..."

"Lemme see, lemme see!" Soultail yelled from Stellar's chest. "I wanna see the baby!"

"Me..."

"Too!" The twins yelled.

Stellar, Rampage, and Sonar picked up the girls and carried them to the far side of their cells, as far away from the grotesque scene as they could, and lay down next to them, trying to make them go to sleep. Stellar gave his sister a disgusted look before turning toward Soultail to sooth her.

Airrizzon tried to wrap an arm around Trioptica, but she jerked it off. "Don't... I'm a monster. I'm no better than those scientists."

Airrizzon looked at her in shock. "Of course you are! You raised me, and Soultail."

She shook her head, still looking at the baby. "I killed my own child just because it was Phobia's... With my own hands I took the most precious life I had ever known, out of fear and rage."

Airrizzon moved close to the baby, and touched the cheek. "Looks like it would have been a girl. Phobia wouldn't have cared if it was his or not. When she got old enough we both know what he would have done to her." Trioptica let out a sob, and cradled the body closer. "Tri you spared your child that torment not out of fear and rage, but out of courage and love. I don't know if I'll have that kind of courage if it ever happens to me..."

Trioptica continued cradling the baby, but she seemed a little calmer. "Do you think they'll understand?"

Airrizzon looked thoughtful. "The men? No. They will never know what it's like to carry a spark inside them. I'm sure Pink and Sonar understand though, and when they're a little older Sundance, Moondance, and Soultail will too."

Trioptica reached out for Airrizzon, and held her against her just like she had when they were little. "I only pray that none of you ever have to live through this, that he or any of his staff never impregnate you. If that day ever comes... then you'll know my pain, and I will be there to help you through it." She suddenly gave Airrizzon a cold look. "But until that day don't try to comfort me, this is a pain I must carry alone."

Darkness stood on the busy street, looking out at a small building. It used to be a factory of sorts, but had been refurbished. Suddenly a loud bell rang from inside it, and hundreds of young bots came running out. He glanced at the crowd of small, happy faces, trying to pick out a particular one. "Darkness is that you?"

He turned around confused, and suddenly broke into a grin. "Smelt be damned. Glassjaw how you been!" The mech he had addressed came up, and they embraced like youths. "How many Stellar cycles has it been now? Five? Six?"

"Eight last Decacycle, just after Starbeam was born. You came to offer us congratulations on a second healthy girl." Glassjaw said with a smile.

"Daddy!" They turned around as a young boy who looked almost identical to Darkness came running toward them. "Darktide! How was school son?"

"I went on a trip today! They took us to the energon recycling plant. When I grow up I wanna be a recycle bot!" The boy said.

Darkness rubbed his head affectionately, but sighed. "With the low quality education offered in the mainstream schools I almost wish my son were in my school."

Glassjaw smiled. "So the dream came true then? You now work as a school counselor? Bit of an odd dream if you ask me, though it seems to run in your family."

Darkness slapped Glassjaw across the side of the head lightly, then turned to his son. "Darktide this is my friend Glassjaw. We met when your mother and I were about to have you."

Darktide looked up at Glassjaw who offered his hand to shake. Darktide recoiled. "Daddy he's crazy, he thinks he's holding something."

The men laughed, and Darkness rubbed his son's head again. "Papa!" Two female voices called out. Glassjaw smiled as two silver and brown girls ran toward him. He picked them up and cuddled them happily. "Skyfire, Starbeam, this is one of my old friend's Darkness, and his son Darktide."

"I know him daddy, he's in my class." Skyfire said to her father. She looked at Darktide. "He thinks he's a garbage man."

"Not a garbage man, a recycle bot! At least I don't wanna invent the first synchronized perfume swim team!" Darktide said.

Skyfire blushed madly, and her sister began laughing hysterically. "Nobody'd swim in perfume Sky. That's just stupid!"

The men looked at each other and sighed. Darkness shook his head. "Like I said low education standards. If it weren't for the horrid cases I deal with in P.E.L.M..."

Glassjaw looked at him in shock. "You work at P.E.L.M?!"

Darkness shook his head. "It's not as glamorous as you'd think."

Glassjaw glanced around nervously. "I think we need to talk. Lets take the kids to the restaurant up the road, there's a playroom there."

They walked up the street to a building with a large yellow M on the top. After they had put the kids into the playroom they ordered a light meal, and sat near the playroom to watch the children, and to make sure they weren't overheard. "You remember Driver, and his wife from the new parents instructional group?"

"Yeah the same group we met in. I often wanted to get back in touch with a lot of the parents from there, including you, but I've been so busy trying to pay the bills, and raise little Darktide that I haven't had much time for friendships." Darkness said while waving a fry.

Glassjaw leaned closer. "Her son was admitted to P.E.L.M."

Darkness smiled, not noticing the serious look on Glassjaw's face. "Great! I bet I know him, that Driver was a bit of a..."

"Darkness they haven't seen their son since he was admitted at age two!" Darkness dropped the fry he was holding, his jaw agape. "His wife went to check on their son, and she never returned."

Darkness took his cup and sipped on his drink in silence for a few moments, obviously deep in thought. "You know it's funny." He said after several moments. "I'm the school councilor, children who cause trouble are sent to my office, yet my office is set aside from the rest of the school. Every time I tried entering the main sections of the building I was told I didn't have sufficient clearance. What kind of school gives children clearance codes to see the school councilor, but the school councilor doesn't have clearance to go see the children?"

Glassjaw shook his head, his face filled with concern. "I don't know, but I do know someone who might be able to help us find out."

Though it was only natural, and everyone knew it would happen, Trioptica couldn't stand it when the guards came in the next day to remove her baby. She sobbed, screamed, and tried to use her powers to pry her baby out of the guards hands. After several minutes however an alarm was sounded, and several doctors, accompanied by Phobia rushed down the hall to sedate her. "Sir the usual sedatives aren't working, we already gave her five doses!"

Phobia took hold of the tranquilizer gun, emptied all the clips, and put in something new, a dart filled with a glowing green substance. One of the other doctors protested. "Sir we haven't even tested it yet! What if it doesn't work?"

"Quiet Sapphira, in this place there's only one way to test a new invention." He fired the dart at her, hitting her right in the neck. Instantly the baby that was being pulled toward her in the air froze and dropped.

Trioptica reached out for it, but suddenly her optics flickered, and she curled up into a ball on the floor. The doctors moved around her, and she began screaming again, this time in pure terror. "NO, PLEASE, GO AWAY! DON'T HURT ME PLEASE! I'M SORRY!!!"

The other children looked at her nearly as afraid. Nothing or nobody had ever made Trioptica beg. Phobia smiled. "Even better than I anticipated. It causes a chain reaction in their brains, forcing it to release negatively charged adrenaline, making them purely afraid of us!" The doctors all smiled evilly at the children, who in turn recoiled in their cells. Phobia smiled widely. "Give them all a dose. Every last child."

It was the most horrible night any of them could remember, especially for the children in the middle cells. After the strain of labor, her attempt to fight for her daughter's body, and the untested medicine floating around in her veins, Trioptica had gone into stasis lock, and none of the children knew if she'd survive the night.

Stellar was curled into a ball against the wall, muttering apologies quietly over and over, while rocking slightly. Airrizzon and Soultail were both curled up against Trioptica, each on one side sobbing wildly, screaming for her to wake up, until their voice transmitters were raw.

In the cell to their left Pink was screaming too, but it seemed she was reliving the destruction of her tribe, because she kept crying out things like "Not the town square!" and "Afzal get away from the door!" Tyranno was screaming in rage, inaudible words, while ramming himself against the forcefield, and running headlong into the wall in fits of rage.

Though the other two cells in the trio were definitely living in their own personal Pits, the last group of children were all trapped in a second prison within their own minds. Sonar had tears streaming down her face while she gently stroked Moondance and Sundance's cheeks, all the while muttering "Mommies don't do this. I'm a bad mommy. Why are my daughters here? Why can't I save them?" Moondance and Sundance could no longer read each others minds, and it seemed to be torture for them. "Sundance where are you? I can't hear you!" "I can't hear you Moondance, where did you go?"

Rampage sat quietly in a corner laughing. "They think they're getting to me, but they can't. I'm above them, I fly, I discovered that myself since the day I came online. When I do what I can I never fail, and they can't take that, it would be stealing!" Terminator was leaning against the forcefield, ignoring the pain, or perhaps not feeling it, muttering all the while. "Terminator... destroy doc botz... Destroy guard botz... Terminator iz greatezt of Prediconz... Terminator ruuuulez!"

Darkness sat in his office massaging his head. "Lets try this one more time Terminator. What's my name?"

"Doc bot... Doc bot." Terminator said, a hint of insanity in his optics.

Darkness looked at Terminator sadly, and opened a drawer of his desk. Terminator recoiled, but Darkness just pulled out two toffees. "Do you want one?" Terminator began shaking wildly. "It's ok, you can have one." He put one in his mouth. "See? It tastes good. Here you have one."

Terminator picked it up, and sniffed it like a rodent. "What in it?"

Darkness gave him a confused look. "Zugar..."

Terminator put it in his mouth, and sucked on it for a moment. His face immediately lit up with happiness. "Sugar... Sugar good..." Suddenly Terminator began flying around the room, buzzing wildly. "ZUGAR GOOD! TERMINATOR HAPPY!"

Darkness laughed, pleased that he had finally seemed to make some progress with Terminator, then he noticed something that shocked him, Terminator didn't have any jets. He sat there stunned, watching Terminator buzz happily around his office for several minutes, until finally he saw fit to fly back down, land in his seat, and smile at Darkness. Darkness smiled back. "Terminator, how did you fly like that?"

Terminator giggled like a young child. "Terminator psychic. Terminator do lotz of thingz Doc bot can't!"

He smiled. "I suppose you're right. Are there other children here who are psychics?" He asked.

Terminator nodded wildly. "That why we here. We all here cause we're freakz. Doc botz want to know why, so they keep uz." He suddenly looked afraid. "Doc bot not tell other doc botz Terminator told?"

Darkness hesitated for only a moment. "Of course not Terminator. I am a psychiatrist. What is said in this office is never shared with anyone."

Terminator moved close to Darkness. "Doc bot not like other doc botz. You... Friend bot. Terminator never be happy before, not like now."

Darkness walked out from behind his desk, and put a hand on Terminator's head. For a moment he felt like he had another son. "I promise you Terminator, I'm going to do everything in my power to help you, and all your friends."

"These guys are said to be the experts in covert operations on Cybertron, and it's rumored they even made it into P.E.L.M before." Glassjaw said as he and Darkness trudged through the sewers.

"Experts? I'd think they'd have a better looking office than this." Darkness said, giving the place a distasteful sniff.

Glassjaw stopped and gave him an even look. "You'll see when we get there. Just try not to be too shocked. We can't do this without them." They moved on for a few more paces, then they stopped in front of an old metal door that was barely visible. Glassjaw knocked three times.

A small peep hole opened, and they saw a visor peek through. "What's the password?"

"The council are mudbloods." He whispered. The door opened, and they were ushered inside quickly.

Darkness looked at the two men inside, the first was sitting at a desk, his feet on the table, looking fairly relaxed, while the other who had opened the door pushed up his visor to reveal... "You're Reploids!"

The one at the desk gave him a cold look. "And you're in a lot of trouble if you don't explain how you got our password, and don't know what we are."

"Easy X, we're not Predicons you know. But we are curious as to what you're doing here. We don't often get Maximal clients." The other one said, bolting the door.

Glassjaw looked at the one called X. "I paid one of the Reploid gypsies. I need help. There's this school, but we don't think it's really a school..."

"Listen to this Zero, we actually have a few concerned fathers looking for their kids! So how long did you wait until you started worrying? One, two Stellar cycles perhaps?"

"X will you shut up already!" Zero said angrily.

"Actually neither of us have children there." They both looked at Darkness in surprise. "I was hired there a few months ago as a 'school psychiatrist'. Every child I meet seems to have been tortured. I finally got one to admit it to me today. Unfortunately P.E.L.M is funded by our government, so unless I can get some good solid evidence, I can't bring it to the public, and get them closed down."

"So why come to us if you already work there?" X said suspiciously.

"Because I'm only allowed in the administration building. I can't even go near the places where the children are. I work in a school with no playgrounds, no sounds of laughter from the grounds, and no access to the school buildings for one of the most important people in any other school." Darkness said angrily.

Glassjaw waved his hand between them all. "What my friend is trying to say is we know they're hurting the children, and we need help proving it."

"X this is just the thing we've been praying for ever since Iris died. We'll get you in, but you have to record all the data, and hand it in to the media yourselves." Zero said enthusiastically.

Glassjaw looked at him confused. "Why can't you take care of it all? We're willing to pay you any amount."

Both X and Zero laughed. "We've done it for free already." X said. "Problem is if the media suspects Reploids recorded the footage sent to them, or hands it in to them, they legally have to disregard it, all thanks to our wonderful Council of Elders."

Darkness nodded grimly. "Alright. Just get us in and we'll get the footage to close that place down for good."

X held up his hand. "Before we talk numbers, there's something else we need from you, just to make sure you're legit."

Glassjaw looked at him curiously. "What is it?"

X smiled. "You gotta prove to me you're trustworthy. Repeat after me. Reploids are not mudbloods."

"Reploids are not mudbloods." They both repeated without hesitation.

X nodded approvingly. "Not bad, not bad. Answer this question for me. On Cybertron what species _is_ considered mudblood?"

Glassjaw and Darkness looked at each other. Darkness answered. "Maximals?"

Zero snorted, and leaned close to X. "Boy these guys have a real low opinion of themselves. Just so you know, as far as our people are concerned there is no such thing as a mudblood species, we are all the same, except some bots are more evil than others."

Darkness nodded, a thoughtful look on his face. Glassjaw walked up to them, and tossed a large sack of credits on the table. "That should cover the mission, and any supplies needed."

X nodded. "Good. We'll move out right now. We'll just pick up supplies at..."

"Now?!" Both Darkness and Glassjaw stammered. The Reploids looked at them surprised. Glassjaw shook his head apologetically. "I'm sorry, it's just we both have children, families. We were just hoping... In case something goes wrong..."

Zero and X looked at each other and smiled. "Go ahead and spend some time with your families. We'll meet at the gates of P.E.L.M at midnight." Zero said.

They both smiled. "Thank you so much. I couldn't bear to think of what would happen if I just left like this and never said anything to my wife and son." Darkness said.

Zero nodded. "It's alright, we understand. After all, one of our own is in that school at this very moment. If we're lucky, maybe with your help we can finally free her tonight too."

Darkness walked into his house on the upper end of Cybertron, a fairly poor neighborhood. As soon as he was in the door Darktide was at his heels. "Daddy look what I made in school today!" He held out a tin can with two forks for arms, two butter knives for legs, and the top of the lid was painted to look like a face.

He smiled. "Is that supposed to be me son?" Darktide nodded happily. "Well you know what? I love it so much I'm gonna keep it with me, I think I'll even bring it to work, and show it off to all my students."

As Darktide was called to his room for bed by his mother, he stowed it in his subspace pocket sadly, wondering if he'd ever see his son alive again. "Darktide wait!" His son walked back toward him. He hugged him fiercely. "No matter what happens son, always know that I love you, and I'll always be proud of whatever you do."

Darktide accepted his father's hug a little suspiciously. He let go and looked at him. "It's just a tin can dad."

He smiled. "Well it's a tin can my boy gave to me, so it means the world to me, just like you." He rubbed his head affectionately, then patted his shoulder. "Ok off you go son, time for bed."

He sat down in the living room, and put his feet up, carefully taking in all the sights in his house, trying to memorize them. After several minutes his wife came in. "Darkness you're in late tonight. Lots of paperwork at the school?"

He sighed. "No Tidal. Is Darktide asleep?" She nodded. "My dear, I've found out something terrible about that school... I can't tell you what, but I'm going to be going back tonight to get some evidence of it." He took her hand and looked at her. "My dear I might not come back."

Tidal looked at him terrified. "Should... Should Darktide and I go to a hotel for the night?"

"No, you'll both be safe here. If all goes well, by the morning I should have that place shut down once and for all!"

Glassjaw walked into his apartment, careful not to make any noise. His wife had passed out on the couch waiting for him. He quietly tiptoed into Skyfire and Starbeam's room. For several moments he just stood at their door, tears streaming down his face. Finally he wiped them, and moved to each of their beds, kissing them on the cheek. "My girls, when you wake up tomorrow, you may be living in a better world."

He silently shut the door, and moved into the living room. He gently shook his wife awake. "Firefly, wake up."

"Hmm... Oh Glassjaw you're home? What took you so long?" She said in a sleepy voice.

He sat down next to her, tears threatening to leak out of his optics again. "There's something I have to do. We were right, P.E.L.M isn't a school, it's a lab, a lab for experimenting on children. I'm going in there tonight with some help from the Reploids to prove it to the rest of the planet."

She bolted upright. "Are you serious?! Glassjaw that's awful!" She gave him a frightened look. "You'll be in danger won't you?"

He nodded sadly. "Dear, if anything happens to me, you have to pretend I walked out on you and the girls. If I fail I know they'll come after you to keep you quiet. Please, if anything happens to me, just tell everyone I never came home."

"Dear I can't... Please don't do this..." She begged.

"Driver's wife and son might already be dead Firefly. These people don't care who they hurt. If our daughters had been born with psychic powers they would have been locked up in there too. Our little girls being tortured and raped every day."

"Stop it!" She sobbed. "I can't think that, by Primus those children... Oh Glassjaw." She began sobbing wildly, and clung to him.

He held her for a long time, then finally tilted her chin up to him. "Promise me you'll pretend I left you."

She leaned against him sadly. "I promise..."

It was very late. After the first treatment with Phobia's new 'medicine' the children had been left for observation for a full 24 hours. If none of them displayed any long term side effects it would be used frequently to keep them in check.

Almost all the children had returned to normal, all except for three. "Terminator muzt get away! Doc botz muzt die!!!"

"Terminator you already said that five nanoclicks ago. Can you give it a rest?" Rampage said in a frustrated voice. He turned his attention back to Sonar who had cuddled into his lap, now just moving her lips silently as though she was talking. "Sonar honey please come out of it." He begged her.

She looked at him confused. "Honey?" He smiled widely. "Is my name Honey? I'm not a bee."

Rampage began to sob, and held her tightly. "Oh Sonar come back to me, please!"

The others watched sadly as Rampage cradled her, Airrizzon hugging Soultail. "Airry, will Sonar ever be ok?"

Airrizzon looked at the girl sadly. "I don't know sweetling. Sometimes when someone has something terrible happen to them, they can no longer be themselves, so they become someone else."

Stellar glanced at them sadly, but knelt back down next to Trioptica. "Sister I'm so sorry I was angry at you. Please wake up."

He lifted her onto his lap, and held her. After a few moments she began moaning. Everyone looked over at her excitedly. "Stellar? Where's my baby?"

He sobbed and hugged her tightly. "Trioptica... I'm so sorry. They took her. Primus I thought I was going to lose you too."

"Terminator! Oh by Primus what have they done to you!" The voice rang out across the hall. All the children turned to see Darkness and an unfamiliar bot running toward his cell.

Terminator looked up at the sound of Darkness' voice, looking almost sane for a moment. "Friend bot? You came for Terminator?"

"Yes Terminator, I came for you. I came for all of you. I'm going to get you out of here." He said.

"Darkness we can't! We're just here to get the pictures and videos. If we try to get them out now the whole plan could be ruined!" The other bot said.

"I don't care Glassjaw! Look at them! I knew it would be bad, but not like this! I'm getting them out of here, now!" He pressed his hand on the forcefield control panel.

"Darkness no!" A voice cried out from somewhere down the hall. It was too late. An alarm bell sounded, and footsteps could be heard. "X we have to leave them! We can't get caught too!"

"You cowards!" Glassjaw cried out, but within seconds the hall was flooded with armed guards, all aiming their guns at them.

Some of the guards parted, and Phobia walked calmly toward them. "Darkness what a surprise! I thought you had more sense than this. It's a good thing I bugged your home. I didn't trust you from the start." He looked at Glassjaw. "Though he didn't mention anything about having an accomplice. Tell me your name."

Glassjaw gave him a look of pure loathing, but didn't answer. Terminator started pushing against the forcefield. "Friend bot! FRIEND BOT!"

Phobia looked at him and smiled. "So this is who you came after. Is he your son maybe?" Glassjaw and Darkness both continued to glare at Phobia. Phobia's expression quickly changed to rage. "Take them to the holding rooms, and bring Terminator.

The guards poked them in the backs with their guns, urging them to move along, and four stayed behind to take Terminator with them. "Phobia don't hurt them please!" Pinkpanther cried from her cell.

He turned around and smiled at her. "Don't worry girl, by the time I'm through with them they won't be in pain anymore."

Glassjaw and Darkness had been locked in separate rooms for over an hour. Finally the guards came for them, and ushered them into a large room, chaining them to the wall. Darkness heard a rattle of chains and looked on in horror. "TIDAL!"

"Oh Darkness I'm so scared... They came into our house, and they brought Darktide and I here. What are they going to do to us?" She cried.

They chained him in between his wife and Glassjaw. He looked around the room, and saw Terminator strapped to a bed, needles poking out of him. Phobia walked into the room. "Have they been searched?"

A guard walked up to him. "Yes sir. They both had various recording devices on them, the stranger had a data pad, and Darkness had this." He held out a tin can with two forks and two knives attached to it.

"Give that back Phobia!" Darkness yelled angrily.

Phobia smiled evilly. "And what were you planning on doing with this? Making beans?" His grin widened at Darkness' expression. "Looks like a child made this, your son perhaps? Well we'll just set it right here where you can see it, right behind Terminator."

Glassjaw looked at him furiously. "If you plan to kill us, just get it over with already, but don't hurt the boy."

He smiled. "Oh no my anonymous friend. Here's how it's going to work. You're going to sit in on one of our sessions with Terminator. Once you start getting... tired of watching our session, you only have to beg for death, and our guards will give it to you."

They all looked at each other and nodded. "We won't play your game you foul man. We'll never beg for death." Tidal said defiantly.

Phobia shrugged. "Fine with me, but this session isn't going to end until all three of you beg for death."

They looked at Terminator in horror. He looked at them and smiled. "Terminator used to it. Terminator not want to see friend botz die. Terminator die happy to see friend botz live."

Darkness looked at him sadly. "Terminator..."

"Terminator get thiz since he little sparkling. Terminator not afraid anymore. Terminator got to eat zugar." He said smiling at Darkness.

Phobia waved at another doctor who moved up, and stripped, then climbed on top of Terminator and penetrated him. The three bots cried out in terror, but with a look from Terminator none of them said a word. Phobia walked into the adjoining room, and put his hand on the shoulder of a young mech. "See that Darktide? Your mommy and daddy defied the council. They betrayed Cybertron. This is the punishment for anyone who commits treason." He looked at Darktide, smiling evilly. "You know who you're supposed to listen to from now on right?"

Darktide looked at his mother and father sadly, and swallowed hard. "Yes sir, you sir."

"Very good." He squeezed Darktide's shoulder so hard that he began wincing. "You're going to be my apprentice Darktide. You're going to learn everything there is to know about the inner workings of Cybertron, and the Tripeticus council."

"Who are they?" He asked curiously.

Phobia smiled and looked back into the room with Darktide's parents. "The true face of Cybertron."

Four times Glassjaw counted the sun rising out the window next to him. Not for even a minute had they stopped tormenting Terminator, but to the boy's credit he hadn't displayed so much as an ounce of fear. He would often turn his head and smile at the three of them. It was almost as though he could hear his voice in his head. _"Don't worry, Terminator do thiz so you can live. Terminator don't mind."_

Finally Phobia stepped back into the room. He looked furious. "It seems I can't get you to surrender to me. Even though I lost at my little game it doesn't matter, you still lost the real battle. The secrets of P.E.L.M are safe."

He pointed a gun at Tidal, and shot her right in the spark. "TIDAL!!! You said you would make us beg Phobia! You said..."

"I never said I would let you live if that's what you're getting at." He walked over to Terminator, and patted his cheek. "You made this poor boy suffer for nothing!"

Terminator smiled at Phobia. "It worth it to beat you once. Terminator happy."

He struck the boy in the side of the head with the bottom of his gun. Glassjaw cried out in protest. "I'm beginning to think I was wrong about you stranger. You don't seem to have any connection here. I'll give you a chance. Tell me your name, or I kill Darkness the old fashioned way." He took out an energon dagger, and smiled.

They looked at each other, and Darkness shook his head. "Those I love are lost to me because I was stupid. Don't make the same mistake I did old friend."

Glassjaw nodded sadly at Darkness. "I'll see you there soon. Tell Tidal when I get there I want to have one of her homemade pies ready for me."

Phobia looked at them enraged, and sliced Darkness' chest open. He gasped, but didn't cry out. He slowly cut all the arteries around his spark, and watched with satisfaction as it slowly stopped pulsing, and rose out of his body to the Matrix. Phobia glared at him furiously. "Guards move him to the seclusion room, see to it he gets no kind of sustenance."

They unstrapped him from the wall. He felt weak already from lack of sleep and food over the past four days. He was tossed roughly into a padded room. Just before the door was shut, Phobia threw something at him. He crawled over to the area where he saw it fall, and touched it. It was the small tin can figure of Darkness. He smiled. "Old friend we won't die in vein. I know we won't be the only ones to ever do this. Someday someone will finish what we tried to do here. Hopefully they're smarter about it than we were.

He cradled the tin can gently, for how long he didn't know, but eventually the room seemed to get lighter, his exhaustion faded, and he could have swore the roughly painted face on the tin can was really Darkness, waiting to welcome him into the Matrix.


	4. The Friend

_The Friend._

Phobia walked down the cell block, a smirk playing across his lips. He was used to the angry looks from the children by now, but today it was different, they weren't glaring at him. It was the small black and gray mech , who's shoulder he was holding, that was getting the brunt of their negative attention today. "Mr Phobia, why do they keep looking at me like that?"

"It's because they're jealous Darktide. We represent the mainstream of Cybertron, the normal bots. They're monsters, freaks, caused by a programing glitch that for the safety of all Cybertronians must be contained, and crushed."

Darktide looked into one of the cells. An orange femme with red optics glared at him, and a green mech next to her bared his teeth. He noticed a strange looking silver femme with brown hair sitting next to a silver femme. He stopped and looked at them. The silver femme watched him carefully. "Come on, you don't want to get to close to those ones. They're some of the most dangerous." Phobia said.

They continued walking, and Trioptica snorted. "Dangerous my aft. Look at that little brat, walking around here at Phobia's side."

"It's almost as though he thinks he's Phobia's protégé." Stellar said. He spit fiercely on the ground.

Airrizzon pulled her hands apart and a piece of wood formed in her hand. She chewed on the end for a few moments until it became frayed, then ran it through Soultail's hair, brushing it. "He doesn't seem evil like the rest of them. Maybe he's a prisoner too."

Trioptica gave a short, mirthless laugh. "Then why isn't he in here with us? I'll tell you why, he's Phobia's son."

Soultail looked at her with a note of surprise. "I didn't think Phobia would have children. Who would want one with him?"

"Terminator know." They all turned to see him watching through the hole in the forcefield. "Boy bot friend bot's son!"

They turned away sadly. Ever since he came back from the lab he had been talking about 'friend bot', but none of them knew who friend bot was supposed to be. They assumed he had just begun to lose it like Sonar.

Soultail stood up, and walked toward the opposite barrier, and stood on her toes to talk to Pink. "What do you think? Is he a friend or an enemy?"

She looked at Tyranno, who had his one remaining arm around her, and he smiled. "Really I don't think he's Phobia's son, but he's definitely on their side."

"Or at least is being forced to be on their side. Who would want to go against Phobia after seeing us like this?" Airrizzon said. Her expression changed to one of annoyance. "Soultail..."

The young girl smiled, and pulled the brush out from under her headband with a flourish. "That took longer than usual. Am I getting better?"

Stellar smiled at her. "Yes you are. I think you're good enough to start putting your skills to practical use."

Airrizzon looked at him in shock. "Stellar she's only ten. She's too young to join the resistance."

He gave her a steady look. "And we were little more than toddlers when we started it. She's old enough to help."

Airrizzon gave him a worried look, but glanced at Soultail who seemed excited. She smiled. "I can't say no to that face."

Trioptica looked around carefully, then beckoned to Soultail. "Come here child." They moved over to the back of the cell, near the middle of the wall. Trioptica shut her optics and placed a hand on the floor. The ground there shifted and a small hole opened up. It was filled with surgical lasers, needles, and chemical vials. "This is what we've managed to get over the last ten years. It's not much because we don't have a knack for stealing like you do. Whenever you manage to get something from the doctors, just put you hand over this spot, close your optics, and picture what it would be like to be free."

She gave Trioptica a confused look. "Why freedom? If the doctors wanted to find it it'd be easy for them to open it. They know what freedom's like."

Stellar walked over, and knelt down next to her. "There's a difference. The doctors know freedom, and they take advantage of it every night when they go home. We don't know it, so each of us looks at freedom as something different, but all of us know it'll be wonderful. They don't look at street lights, and stars like we do, they just see them. We want to see them, and that's what makes it work. To shut it is almost the same thing, just picture using the items inside it to win your freedom and..." The hole suddenly disappeared.

Soultail smiled. "I got it. I'll fill it up fast, don't worry."

Trioptica and Stellar smiled, but Airrizzon looked worried. Trioptica walked up to her, and put a hand on her shoulder. "She's not your little girl anymore Airry. It's time she grew up."

Airrizzon looked sadly at Soultail as she walked over to the other forcefield to talk with Sundance and Moondance. "I know, I just always wished we could get her out of here before she had to grow up too fast."

Darktide sat at the desk in Phobia's office, blankly staring at a data pad. Images and words flashed past him, and he took them down to memory, but he was confused. _They're just kids like me. Why do they have to stay in the cells, and I get to sleep in a bed?_

The door opened, and a guard came in. "Evening Darktide. Phobia said he won't be able to have dinner with you, so I brought you a meal." He set down a platter of food.

"Thank you Razorblade." He said looking at the guard.

Razorblade smiled at him, then looked out into the hall, and took a deep breath, like he was sniffing a beautiful flower. "Wonderful isn't it? We're really the future of Cybertron. We're living in a golden era Darktide. Someday people will find out about the freak bots who came online, and they'll know how we prevented them from destroying Cybertron." He gave Darktide a fond look. "Phobia has big plans for you boy. I'm really not supposed to say this, but someday when he retires this will all be yours."

Darktide looked at him surprised, then looked down at his food. He heard the door shut behind him, and picked up his fork. "All mine huh?" He took a few bites of steak, then pushed away his plate smiling. "Well then Phobia can't get mad if I do some things the way I want."

He piled all the food into a container, and put it in his subspace pocket. He stood up, and went toward the cell block. Two guards were at the entrance playing cards. They looked at him curiously. "Darktide you know you shouldn't be here alone."

He took a deep breath, hoping his plan would work. "I want to take a look at some of the femmes again. Maybe later Phobia will let me have one. He likes to keep me happy."

The guards looked at each other nervously and nodded. "Whatever you want young man. I'll come in with you just in case."

Darktide looked shocked. "Y..you gotta be kidding me! I don't want you watching. I won't be able to get it up with you guys around!"

The guards smiled. "Ah I see. Go ahead." He leaned close to him. "Next time just say you want a few minutes to 'interrogate' one of the femmes. We'll know what you mean."

He smiled. "Thanks." The guard unlocked the door, and let him in, shutting it behind him. Darktide walked up to the first cell, a little hesitantly. Two small mechs were inside. They stared at him in horror. He pushed a button on the panel, and a small opening formed in the forcefield. He pulled out his food, and showed it to them. "Do you have anything for me to put this on?"

They looked at him, terrified. He opened the lid, and pulled out a piece of meat, then ate it smiling. He held it back out, and one of the boys came forward. He took hold of his own finger, and snapped off the joint. Darktide watched in horror as it grew back perfectly. He passed the finger to the other boy who held it for a moment with his optics shut. Darktide stared in awe as a small bowl was made from the boy's finger. He portioned out a fair bit of the food into the bowl. The boy smiled shyly at him. "Thank you."

He smiled at the boy. "No problem. Can the others do that?" The boy gave him a confused look. "I mean make bowls for themselves." He shook his head. He gave the boy a frightened look. "I feel bad about this, but can you make more of them so the others can have food too?"

The boy smiled widely, and snapped off another finger. It took several minutes for the boys to create enough bowls for all the cells. Even after watching it happen so many times he still felt ill when the boy tore off his own finger. Finally the bowls were made, and the boy passed them through the forcefield. "There, that'll feed them all."

He took them and smiled at the boy. "Thanks. Say... Does it hurt when you do that?" He asked.

The boy gave him a sad look. "Sure, but it's not like I'm not used to it or anything."

He gave the mechs a final smile, and started portioning food out to the other cells. When he got to the middle cells he saw the same boy he had seen in the lab with his parents. "You!"

Terminator looked at him in shock. "Friend botz son! Why you come see Terminator?"

The ones in the two cells to the left looked at him in surprise. "I came to give you some food. All of you."

He opened forcefield like he had before, and held out a bowl of food, but Rampage stepped in front of Terminator before he could grab it. "We don't want pity from Phobia's son. Keep your poisoned food."

He looked at Rampage in shock. "It's not poisoned, and I'm not Phobia's son! He's just... taking care of me."

Rampage laughed. "Like we could believe you. Airry come here." Darktide looked at the silver femme he had seen the other day as she moved toward the cell wall. Rampage grabbed the food, and brought it to a gap in their cells. "What do you say, is it safe?"

She looked at Darktide curiously, then dipped her finger into the food. "It's safe, he's telling the truth." She said still looking at him.

Rampage took back the bowl, and passed it to Sonar. "Here honey, eat some food."

Sonar looked at him confused. "Is it good food?" He nodded. "Did my daughters eat? I want my daughters to eat."

He smiled softly. "Of course." He brought the bowl over to Moondance and Sundance. "Here, don't eat it all, save some for us ok?"

"We..."

"Won't." They said, and began picking out pieces of meat and potatoes.

Darktide moved to the next cell where the silver femme was waiting for him. He opened the forcefield, and put the bowl through. "Thank you." She said.

Her hand brushed his as she took the bowl, and he felt himself blushing. "Anytime. What's your name?"

She smiled at him, blushing slightly. "Airrizzon. What's yours?"

He smiled widely, but the orange femme he had seen before moved in front of Airrizzon, and glared at him. "Doesn't matter. He's here to hand out food. We're grateful, now keep moving. There are other bots who haven't eaten in weeks just up the hall."

He frowned, but moved along to Pink and Tyranno's cell. Tyranno put his right hand out, but the bowl moved toward Pink. Instead he grabbed Darktide's hand in a handshake. "You seem to be alright." Suddenly Darktide's fingers began curling backwards toward his wrist. He winced. "But cross any one of us and you'll live to regret it." Darktide pulled away and looked at his hand. It seemed fine now. Tyranno smiled. "Metal bending. My specialty. How's the food Pink?"

Pink smiled, a piece of meat sticking out of her mouth. "Really good, you gotta try some of this."

Tyranno smiled one more time at Darktide, then walked toward Pinkpanther, sitting next to her, and reaching into the bowl every now and again.

Darktide finished handing out the rest of the food, then walked back to the exit. The optics of the children followed him, this time not seeming as hostel. He smiled, then walked out. "So what do you think?" The guard said to him.

"Huh?" He replied.

The second guard smiled. "There's a lot of good looking ones in there, but did any catch your optic? One you want to... get to know better?"

He hesitated for a moment. "Uh yeah.... Airrizzon."

Airrizzon was lying on the lab table, ignoring the doctor who was having his way with her. She could feel his penetration, smell his foul breath, but it wasn't unusual. She had been getting this treatment for most of her life. She was very used to it. Finally she felt that he was finished, and breathed a sigh of relief. He got up and smiled at her. "There's one more... test we need to run today."

"Oh joy." She said without any enthusiasm. The doctor moved aside, and Darktide walked up to her. She gave him a shocked look.

"I'd like to be alone for this." He said.

The doctor smiled. "Of course, but Phobia and I will be watching from that window over there. Standard procedure."

The doctor walked out of the room, and Airrizzon glared at him. "Trioptica was right, you're just like them."

He started removing his armor, and looked at her sadly. "I'm sorry, I thought if I told them I was interested in you they'd just let me in to talk to you. I didn't think they'd be expecting me to have sex with you."

She glared at him. "Well you're not too bright are you? Just get it over with so I can get back to my cell."

He looked at the window and hesitated. Suddenly he pulled up his lower plate. "No. I won't force you. You go through that enough."

She looked at him surprised. The door burst open and Phobia walked into the room. "What the Pit do you think you're doing Darktide?!" He walked up to him, and punched him in the side of the head. Darktide fell to the floor, and Phobia kicked him in the stomach.

"I..I can't.... with you watching!" He yelled. Phobia stopped and looked at him. "It's too embarrassing."

Phobia picked him up by the scruff of the neck. "Do it or you can sit in the cells with them, instead of sleeping in a proper bed!"

Phobia tossed him toward the table where Airrizzon was strapped down, and walked out of the room. She looked at him sadly. "You're just as much a prisoner here as we are." He nodded, holding his stomach. She looked at him for a few moments. "Go ahead. I don't want to be the reason you lose what little happiness you have."

He looked at her, and crawled up on the bed next to her. "I'll be gentle." He put his hand on her cheek, and kissed her.

She was surprised, and felt something she never had before, something that made her happy. She kissed him back. He slowly removed his armor, a little nervous, but she smiled encouragingly at him. He lay down next to her again and kissed her, while running his hand across her body. She felt sensations course through her that she didn't know were possible. She glanced at the window, and frowned. "Best hurry before he thinks I'm enjoying it."

He nodded, climbed on top of her, and entered. They both gasped, surprised at how good it felt. He touched her cheek, and smiled at her. She smiled back, and began moving to his rhythm. After what could have been only a few minutes, or several sunny days, he let out a strangled cry and came inside of her. Gasping he rested his head on her chest, and felt her hand gently stroking his. He looked at her sadly. "I'm sorry."

She smiled. "Don't be. Thank you, that was the first time I knew why they did that to me. It felt good."

He smiled at her, and got up as the door opened. Phobia was looking at him carefully. He looked back at Airrizzon, who's face had turned blank. Phobia seemed satisfied. "Good work Darktide. Maybe you do have what it takes to work here when you grow up."

Darktide put on his armor again, and watched sadly as Airrizzon was unstrapped, and taken out of the room.

Airrizzon walked calmly back into her cell, and without a word she walked to the back of the room, lay down in the area they usually slept, and sighed. Soultail walked up to her curiously. "Are you ok?"

She looked up at her and smiled. "I've never been better." She shut her optics and continued smiling. Trioptica and Stellar walked over to her, and stared. Sensing their gaze she opened her optics. "What?"

Stellar gave her a concerned look. "What happened today in the lab?"

She shrugged, still smiling. "Nothing out of the ordinary." She sat up, made a piece of wood, bit the end, then waved at Soultail, who obediently sat down next to her to be groomed.

While she brushed the girl's hair she began humming. Soultail smiled, and turned to her when she finished. "Sing it again."

She smiled wider, and shut her optics as she worked, humming softly. By this time the others had begun watching her curiously. Stellar waved his hand at the others, and they moved to the front of the cells for a meeting. "What do you think it is?"

Rampage shook his head in wonder. "She sure looks happy I'll tell you that."

Pink giggled and looked at Tyranno. "Isn't it obvious?" The others looked at her curiously. She took Tyranno's hand. "She's in love."

Stellar and Trioptica looked at them disbelieving, but Rampage looked thoughtful. "Reminds me of how Sonar used to look at me."

Sonar piped up from next to him. "I love you. You're nice to me." Rampage smiled sadly at her, put an arm around her, and kissed her cheek.

Trioptica walked back to where Airrizzon was sitting, still humming at Soultail. "Airrizzon, you didn't happen to see Darktide today did you?"

She paused in her brushing, and blushed. "Yes, he was in the lab."

Trioptica looked furious. "Did he... rape you?"

Airrizzon looked at the back of Soultial's head, still smiling. "No." Trioptica looked relieved. "But we did have sex."

Trioptica's optics flared. "I knew it! I knew he was trouble from the first moment I saw him!"

Stellar walked over to her. "Sister calm down."

"Tri he's as much a prisoner here as we are! He actually refused to until Phobia threatened to put him in the cells with us!" Airrizzon said in a pleading voice.

"If he was any kind of decent bot he would have told Phobia that he could lock him up! He raped you and you're sitting here acting like it was consensual?"

Airrizzon stood up angrily. "You don't understand! It was different with him. He was kind, and gentle, and wasn't trying to hurt me. He actually made me feel good!"

"And I'm sure it felt wonderful to him too, just like it does to the doctors and the guards!" Trioptica yelled.

Airrizzon glared at her. Finally she sighed. "You'll never understand. Only someone who's been in love can know what that's like, and you... you're just too wrapped up in yourself to ever fall in love. Even if you ever escape you'll never know what true love is like cause you're just too damn self centered to feel it!"

Before anyone could stop them they had lunged at one another, and begun punching. Stellar and Soultail tried to pull them off of each other. "Sister stop it!"

At the sound of her brother's voice she stopped, and stood up. She looked down at Airrizzon who was lying on the floor glaring at her, a bit of mech fluid dripping out of her mouth. She snorted, turned around, and stomped to the other side of the cell, sitting cross legged, facing the wall.

Airrizzon rolled over, curled up into a ball, and began crying. Soultail lay down next to her, and she hugged the girl, crying herself to sleep.

Darktide lay on his bed, and looked at the data pad Phobia wanted him to memorize for the next day. He sighed, and sat it down on the table next to his bed. He shut his optics, and instantly he saw Airrizzon. He opened them, and shook his head. He shut them again, but there she was, lying under him, smiling up at him, her optics filled with trust, and love.

"Slaggit!" He yelled. He sat up, and held his head in his hands. "I can't... She's a prisoner... we could never be together."

He stood up, no longer in the mood to sleep, and walked out into the living room, in the apartment he was forced to share with Phobia within the grounds of P.E.L.M. He flopped onto the couch, and sighed. After several moments a flickering light caught his optic, and he raised his head. Phobia had left his computer on.

He stood up, and went to shut it off when a picture caught his optic. He studied it carefully. There were four bots in shadows. They looked menacing. He was about to click it off the screen when he noticed the name of the file. "Tripeticus council? Phobia mentioned them before. This must be them."

He noticed a second window that was minimized, labeled 'Maximal Council of Elders.' Curious he opened it. He gasped. On the screen was several figures in shadow, and four of them had been circled, the same four that had been in the picture of the Tripeticus Council. Darktide was no fool, everybody knew the Council of Elders were the rulers of Cybertron. "The Council is corrupt... Just like Phobia."

He connected himself to the computer. "Upload images, save and triple encrypt." He said. It only took a few moments. He gasped. There had been a data file attached to the pictures. "By the code of Primus they're pure evil... I have to warn the rest of Cybertron!"

He went to leave the room, then hesitated. He grabbed a data pad, and uploaded everything he had just discovered. "Erase encryption, but add password protection."

When it was finished he stored it in his subspace pocket, and ran to the cell block. The guards smiled at him. "I want to interrogate one of the femmes."

They smiled wider. "Go on in." They opened the door, and he ran to the middle cells. He looked inside, and was crestfallen to see she was asleep.

Suddenly the orange femme snapped her head in his direction, and moved toward the barrier. "Come back to hurt her again? I don't care what she says, you're just as bad as them."

He looked at her, then reached into his subspace pocket. "Listen, I have to leave this place, I found out something terrible. Please make sure Airrizzon gets this."

She glared at him. "Why don't you give it to her yourself the next time you rape her?"

He looked shocked and hurt. "I'm really sorry for that, but please, this could mean the end of Cybertron. If I don't go now, and get this into the right hands it could mean disaster for us all, especially for those left in P.E.L.M. The password is 'Freedom'."

"Freedom?" She said. She looked to the back of the room, then sighed. "I'll make sure she gets it." He opened a part of the forcefield and passed her the pad. She took it, and grabbed his arm for a moment. "Good luck Darktide."

He gave her a calm look. "I just hope I can be brave like my dad, and save you all."

She looked at him curiously. "Who was your dad?"

He smiled sadly. "His name was Darkness. Phobia made me watch as they killed him and my mom. More than anything I want to make them proud of me, and save you all, especially Airrizzon."

She looked at him sadly, a moment of insight hitting her, flooding her with a feeling of foreboding. "I know you do." Suddenly an alarm sounded. Trioptica pushed his hand away. "Go!"

He looked into the cell, and saw Airrizzon raise her head. She looked at him in shock. "Darktide?"

Tears threatening his optics, he turned away from her, and ran. By the time he turned around the guards were half way down the hall. They ran toward him, arms outstretched. He slid under their legs, got up, and fast as a cat he continued down the hall, toward the exit. "Don't let him escape! He's stolen my files!"

He gasped as he heard Phobia's voice echoing down the hall after him. Knowing that his very life depended on it, he ran. He turned a corner, and saw the emergency exit. He burst through the door, and ran right into the arms of Razorblade. "I have him!"

He struggled helplessly, knowing he was done for. "Darktide you're just as meddlesome as your father." His head was turned forcefully, and he stared into the bright yellow optics of Phobia. "Time to get back my files, and maybe a bit more." He plugged a data download cable into the side of his head, then into Darktide's.

Darktide was struck with a sudden idea. "Computer download all files!" He cried at the exact same moment as Phobia. They both screamed in agony as their processors attempted to upload and download each other at once.

Razorblade watched in horror for several moments, then pulled the plug out of Darktide's head. Darktide slumped in his arms, as Phobia fell to the ground unconscious. The other guards ran outside to see what was happening. They looked at the two still bots in horror. Razorblade took a deep breath. "Get Phobia inside, and have him treated at once for circuit damage. I'll dispose of this one. He won't survive anymore than three cycles.

The others nodded, and carried Phobia inside. Razorblade lifted Darktide into his arms, and carefully made his way around the back of the P.E.L.M grounds, out the back gates, removed all his armor, and dumped him in an alley several blocks from the lab.

"Dude that was totally worth it! You see the tits on that strip bot?" A young teen with dark blue plating and a gold face said.

"Yeah totally, I didn't think she'd actually use that as an input! Wait till the guys in the dorm hear about this." Another one with identical plating, and a light blue face replied.

A third one with the same armor, but a light silver face looked around nervously. "Guys we're gonna be in so much shit for leaving school. What if the headmaster finds out?"

The blue one snorted. "Please we're the next generation of mercenaries for hire! If the teachers didn't want us sneaking out, they shouldn't have taught us how. He'll probably congratulate us on making it without getting caught."

The silver one frowned. "That's if we don't get caught coming back in."

The gold one slapped him across the back of the head. "Well if you're that nervous we'll take the alley back. It's just a few blocks that way, and over the fence at the end."

They turned into the alley, still joking and laughing. Suddenly the blue one fell face first on the ground. The others started laughing at him until they saw what he tripped over. "Primus it's a kid!" The silver one said.

The blue one felt his chest. "He's still alive, but his spark's weak. We've gotta get him some help!"

The silver one knelt down next to him looking terrified. "We can't take him to a hospital, we'll be expelled for sure! We're way out of bounds guys. I told you this was a bad idea!"

"Cool it man, you're not gonna graduate acting like that. Look we'll take him to the hospital wing at the mercenaries training academy. The doctors there are just as good as any hospital." The gold one said picking up Darktide.

The blue one smiled. "Hey you're right, since we always get pretty badly damaged in training. They can fix him no problem!" After making sure he was still alive once more, they ran as fast as they could for the mercenaries training academy.

Darktide opened his optics slowly. He was in a very bright room, lying on a comfortable bed. For a moment he had a vague memory of someone, a femme, who would often come into his line of sight after waking up in such a soft bed. He waited for her, but she didn't arrive. He sat up and looked around. He was in an unfamiliar place. There was a mech with an orange face, and white armor with a blue stripe down the front at a desk nearby. He turned and smiled at him. "Ah you're awake! Do you remember your name?"

He held his head, and concentrated. "It's Darktide... I think."

The mech smiled. "Very good. My name is Gearzone. I'm a doctor here at the mercenaries training academy. What else do you remember?"

Darktide rubbed his head. "Not much... There was a dark mech with yellow optics... Something to do with a silver femme... I... I had to get somewhere... Tell somebody... something."

"I see. Well for starters I'll ring your name through our database to see if I can find your family, I'm sure they'll be happy to know you're here." Gearzone turned to his computer and ran a search. He frowned. "No Darktide exists on the Cybertronian database. Not to worry though, your personal datatrax should bring up a match. I took a scan while you were unconscious." He tried again, this time looking worried. "Nothing."

Darktide stared at him fearfully. "What does that mean?"

"Well you're obviously not a Reploid, and they're the only unlisted Cybertronians unless... Somebody must have deleted you from the main database."

Darktide looked at him stunned. "Why would they do that?! How?!"

Gearzone shook his head. "I don't know, though the highest qualified mercenaries don't usually have their names on the system to keep them safe. You look a little young to be a mercenary though... Yet youth is a clever disguise."

"So you're saying I'm a mercenary? I don't remember anything like that." He said in wonder.

Gearzone hummed. "You could be, but that's just a theory. It would explain a lot, like why you were found near the school, and why you're name's not in the central database." He smiled at Darktide. "Know what? Lets say you are."

"Huh?"

Gearzone gave him a serious stare. "Look it's a great career, and you're ready made. You're not in the system, and from the looks of it you're pretty well built for the job. We can just tell the others here that you are, but your memory was erased, so you need to be retrained. It's possible that's the truth, but even if it's not where else can you go?"

"I guess so. Somehow... a piece of it fits." He shut his optics and saw himself running down a hallway, and had the feeling that he was carrying something important he had to give to someone. "Yeah it does make sense! Alright, from now on I'm a mercenary!"

"Freedom." Airrizzon clutched the data pad, her fingers trembling, Trioptica, Stellar, and Soultail looking over her shoulder. Several picture and words flew past the screen, and they watched, reading, in pure horror. "The council is being run by... Cybertronians that aren't Maximal or Predicon?"

"And look at this!" Stellar said. "Their eventual plan is to recreate our powers in drones, and use them against the Predicons, Reploids, and any Maximals that object! They want to start a civil war using our powers!"

"We can no longer trust the council friends. Our only hope is to escape, and warn as many civilians as possible before this plan can be carried out." Trioptica said looking at the others in the adjoining cells.

"Boy bot going to tell others!" Terminator said. "We be free tomorrow!"

"I don't think we'll be that lucky." Tyranno said. "When I was in the lab today I overheard two of the doctors talking. Darktide is dead. One of the guards 'disposed' of his body last night, and Phobia's in stasis lock."

"He can't be dead!" Airrizzon cried. "He had to have made it out. I'm sure of it! They would have shown us his shell, or told us..."

"Airrizzon why would they? As far as they're concerned he's just another bot who cared too much about us. It wouldn't have made any difference if they made an example out of him. If he were a psychic I'm sure they wouldn't have hesitated."

Airrizzon let out a wail, and threw herself into the corner of the cell sobbing. They all watched her sadly. Suddenly Sonar reached into their cell, and grabbed the data pad. "That looks like our home."

Sundance took the pad from her and smiled. "It's P.E.L.M guys, it's all the data on P.E.L.M's building!"

Trioptica reached into the next cell, and Sundance handed the pad to her. She smiled. "As his final act he helped us ensure our escape. Though he was never officially a member of the resistance, let him be remembered as the bravest, most noble." She walked over to Airrizzon, and put a hand on her shoulder. "And loved member of the P.E.L.M resistance movement."


	5. The Arrivals

The arrivals.

Soultail stood quietly, a smile on her lips. She couldn't see a thing, and was getting a little impatient. "Ok guys come on, let me see!"

The hands that were in front of her optics were pulled away, and she gasped in surprise at what she saw. There were several small daggers, some throwing stars, and a beautiful Toneburry carved out of wood. "Happy 16th birthday Soultail!" Airrizzon, Trioptica, and Stellar yelled.

Her optics teared up, and she hugged all three of them at once. "Thank you so much! This is the best birthday ever!"

Tyranno cleared his voice from the next cell. "Excuse me, just them? You don't think they could have made those weapons do you? That's the work of a master metal bender!"

Soultail smiled, and ran toward the barrier in her cell, and put her arms through the gap. He smiled, and took one in his arm, and leaned his head against it for a moment. "Thank you so much Tyranno!"

"It's just a few dumb shards of scrap metal. As long as they make you happy though." He said. It was hard to tell if his annoyance was real or fake, though most of them suspected he was only pretending.

Soultail gathered her presents, and cradled them as Stellar waved them all to the front of the cells for a meeting. Now that the girls were sixteen they were involved in the meetings. Stellar looked at Soultail, and had a vague memory of receiving stuffed toys, and clothing for his third birthday. He wished that she could know what that was like, but was happy that she seemed content with what little they could give her. "Alright everyone this is it. Over the past six years we have collected more weapons than we ever dreamed to steal. We've analyzed all the data Darktide left us with, and have come up with a plan. Trioptica."

He moved aside to let her speak. She gave Sonar a sad look. Her stomach was swollen, as it had been for the past 5 decacycles. For the past few years she had become so unstable with her powers that the doctors were no longer able to rape her, but recently her and Rampage had begun taking their relationship to a physical level. This was his baby. "Everyone, at midnight Phobia plans to take Sonar to the lab, and force her to deliver her baby. When they come in to your cell, Moondance will run to hug her, and drop the energy disruptor just in the entrance of the forcefield. After they take her, we will activate it, then Rampage will use the code scrambler we stole on the control panel, and open all the cells. After they're open, we'll rally the other children and get them to fight back. Even with the serum they can't stop us all. After we get past the guards we head for the lab, break Sonar out, and head for the loading bay. It's the only area that's unlocked at night for deliveries. Tonight we taste freedom friends."

They all hugged each other silently. They knew that if they were lucky it could all finally be over that night.

The young bot laughed happily. "That tickles man!" A blob of liquid flowed over his shoulders, and then fell to the floor.

"Man my brother's such a douche. 'Don't do that Tri, mom wouldn't like it!' HA!" The blob said. It started growing, and began taking the form of a young mech.

The door to the room opened, and a femme walked in. "What do you boys want for dinn..... WHAT IN THE PIT?!" She yelled seeing Tri.

" Isn't it cool mom? Triassicus can transform into water." The young mech said.

The femme looked at Triassicus very cautiously. "Yes, it is. You two stay here, I'll just make some energon pizzas."

The boys cheered, and turned away, talking excitedly. The femme shut the door and went into the kitchen. She sat in front of the phone, and dialed a number. A cold faced mech appeared on the visual. "P.E.L.M reception... Oh Steelshaft, did you forget something at work today?"

Steelshaft leaned closer to the screen. "No, but you'd better sent out a recovery team. There's a freak here in my house."

The mech looked stunned. "You're kidding? You found one?"

She nodded. "Yes, his name's Triassicus."

"Where'd he go?! Find that little thief!" The mech yelled. There was a light blue blur, then a second one zipped past the man, and several energon cubes disappeared from the food stand. "HEY SOMEONE HELP!"

Bots on the streets of Cybertropolis jumped back in surprise as two blue blurs zipped past them. Some of the femmes yelled as their purses disappeared from their arms. Several blocks away in an alley two young mechs appear, carrying an armload of purses and food. "Man that was rich!"

The other shook his head, looking worried. "Dash that was too close. He saw you before you sped up."

Dash laughed. "Chill out Flash, they won't catch us. Lets eat." They sat down on some boxes, and began eating, and counting out the money in the purses.

A shadow fell over them, and they looked up. "Evening boys." The officer said. They both glanced at each other, and stood up. The officer grabbed Flash, and held onto his wrist. "Ok boys enough."

"Let him go!" Dash yelled. A ball of fire lit up in his palm, and he threw it at the policeman. The officer dodged, and grabbed Dash's arm too.

Another officer walked up to them. "Wavelength I can't do this anymore. It's cause of us these kids live like this."

The boys struggled, but Wavelength held them fast. "Streamline we've been through this. Orders are that all psychics are to be apprehended and brought to that facility for evaluation."

Streamline looked at them, and frowned. "Wavelength that place is a hole. They tell the public it's a school but we both know better. What if Consel had been born like them? Would you give her away to that place?"

He snorted. "My daughter isn't one of them, and if she was, she carries enough of my sense of justice to understand that it's for the greater good. She would have walked in there willingly and taken it."

Streamline glared at his partner. "By Primus I pray she's got anything but your sense of justice. When she goes off to the police academy next year, I hope she'll become a decent cop with a heart like her mother."

Wavelength and Streamline glared at one another, as though seeing who the other really was for the first time. "Just help me cuff these little brats. We can talk about it at the station."

Streamline shook with rage, but lowered his head, and placed hand cuffs on the boys. He held onto Flash's wrists tightly as they brought them to their squad car. "Wavelength you weren't there my first arrest... That Predicon was five, and an orphan. I don't even know if he's still alive. I've had nightmares every night for the past sixteen years imagining what that boy's gone through because of me."

Dash and Flash began shaking, realizing that wherever they were going, they might be killed. Wavelength got into the front, and started driving, while Streamline stayed in the back, holding onto the boys. "I think once we get this taken care of you should go in for an evaluation."

Streamline looked at the ground. "Slaggit Wavelength every cop whose broken down from this has gone missing... I don't want to keep this up anymore, but I don't want to be murdered to keep quiet. You know they haven't all just gone on a long vacation."

Wavelength visibly shuddered, and grasped the wheel more firmly, but remained silent.

The femme struggled. She couldn't breath. Water was pressing in on her everywhere. She was drowning! She summoned fire around her, but it was just extinguished. _More... more fire!_ She struggled, trying to build up the flame, trying to evaporate the water around her. It wasn't working. _MORE FIRE!_ She thought. Suddenly she heard screaming. Someone was crying out. There was a loud roaring sound. She sat up, wide awake, and her room was enveloped in fire! "NO NO GO AWAY!" She yelled.

It began to diminish, but it had barely shrunk when her door burst open. Her father ran into the room, his metal melting, and dripping off him. She could see the fire in the hallway. "Mystic!" He yelled, but his voice was hoarse.

She screamed. "DADDY!" The fire grew bigger, and hotter. He fell to the floor, and stopped moving. She saw his spark fly out of his body, through the flames, and up through the roof. "NOOO!!!"

The flames disappeared instantly. She heard sirens in the distance. She ran toward her father, and fell on top of him. "Daddy come back, I'm sorry!" She screamed. His body remained still. She lay there for a long time. Finally someone came up behind her, and grabbed her. "NO DADDY NO!"

She burst into flames, and the bot holding her let go. "Primus what the hell is she?!" The voice said.

Another voice yelled out. "She's one of those creatures the counsel sent a message to us about. She killed her own father!"

The first bot picked up a pipe, and hit her over the head with it. The flames died, and she fell to the ground. "Contact P.E.L.M, tell them we have another psychic." She heard before she passed out.

The two young mechs sat quietly in the sewer. A red and yellow one played with something in his hand, that looked kind of like a colony of insects. "Ozonide put them away."

Ozonide looked at the black and blue mech that had spoken. "No. I don't feel like it."

He glared at him. "I said put your nanites away." He stared coldly at him, and mech fluid started running out of Ozonide's audios. The nanites flew up his arm, and crawled into his ear. The flow of mech fluid stopped.

Ozonide looked at him angrily. "Try that again Chronose, and I'll set them on you."

Chronose laughed evilly. "I can make them explode with a thought. You know you can't hurt me with them."

Ozonide smiled suddenly. "That's an idea. How about we find someone to test it on?"

"Test what on?"

He looked at Chronose like he was thick. "Exploding nanites. You get um to crawl into someone's core processor, and set um off."

Chronose grinned. "Hey I like it! Come on, there's some Reploids living a few grates down." The boys got up, and ran down the sewer.

They stopped as they saw two Reploids walking, and talking. "She's be sixteen today. Last reports say she's still healthy."

"Didn't X say the kids were planning a break out tonight?" The other one said.

"Yeah, but don't forget, the special forces are supposed to be bringing in a new load of kids they caught recently at around midnight."

The Reploids turned a corner toward the encampment, and the boys followed slowly. Suddenly bright lights shone through the sewer from behind the boys. "This is a raid, all Reploids stay where you are, and prepare to be searched for stolen goods, and contraband! Anyone who moves will be shot."

The boys turned around to see a hundred police all dressed in high quality armor pointing guns toward them. They nodded to each other, and Ozonide released a group of nanites. Chronose directed them toward the police, and they both laughed hysterically as the officers in the front row twitched and yelled in agony. Once he sensed they were in deep enough, Chronose sent out a psychic command to make them explode.

The police collapsed. Some had limbs blown clear off, and writhed on the ground in delirium, while others had died instantly. The Reploids reacted instantly. "Murderers!" They cried. The crowd rushed toward them, and before either boy could turn around, they had been tackled by the mob. The police who had been behind their comrades now rushed forward, and pulled out guns that had darts with green fluid in them. They fired at the boys, who fell to the ground, instantly unconscious.

"Did you see that? The red one killed our men!"

"That other one with him is probably a psychic too."

"We have to get them to P.E.L.M and warn Phobia about this one."

"He needs to be confined, he's a murderer."

Tyranno, Pinkpanther, Trioptica, Stellar, Airrizzon, and Soultail lay quietly in their cells. Though the doctors knew that they were tight knit with the next cell, it would be too suspicious if they waited awake for it to happen. It was natural for the doctors to come and take the bots away for tests, or abortions. They had to act as normal as possible, but it was hard.

All Trioptica could think about was what may go wrong. _If this doesn't work they'll put us in the lab for the rest of our lives. Even if it does work, what if we can't get to Sonar before they abort her baby? Primus I can't be responsible for the loss of another innocent life. This has to work!_

At last they heard footsteps coming down the hall. "Busy night tonight eh?" A guard said.

"Yeah, but it's better than sitting and doing nothing. Did you hear Phobia talking about cutting back the security's pay on quiet nights to half?" Another said.

"Yeah it's bull shit. Alright goldie, out of the cell!" The first guard said, yelling the last sentence as he deactivated the forcefield.

Sonar got up, a vacant smile on her face, and walked calmly toward them. Just as she reached the door Moondance ran up and hugged her sobbing.

Trioptica rolled over slowly, as though the commotion had woken her up, and noticed a small, slightly flattened circular device fall to the floor, just at the entrance to the forcefield. A small ball of tension was relieved. So far so good. "Girl get off her or I'll beat you!"

Moondance slowly backed away, and Rampage put his arms around her protectively. The guards closed the forcefield, and walked on either side of Sonar, who was chatting happily to them, completely unaware of the danger she and her baby were in.

They stood up as soon as the guards were out of site, and waited until they heard the security door slide shut. "Quickly Rampage." Stellar said, hitting a switch on a small pad in his hand.

Rampage's cell opened, and he ran out, and put the code scrambler in front of their cell. It deactivated. They each ran out with a scrambler in their hands, and began deactivating the cells, and waking up the children. In a few minutes over 3,000 children were crowding the hallway, silently looking at the small band of rebels. "Tonight we leave this place behind, and make all of Cybertron aware of the trials we've all endured, and the precious lives that have been stolen by these monsters." Stellar said.

All the children nodded with solemn looks on their faces. Trioptica moved toward the door separating the cells from the rest of the establishment. "Head for the loading bay, left out this door, and straight ahead to the end of the hall, then take a right. For freedom!" She yelled as she opened the door. They took off as fast as they could, heading for the loading bay.

The others turned right, toward the labs. They were right on schedule. The doctors shouldn't have had enough time to abort Sonar's baby. _We're going to make it, we're really going to be free!_ Trioptica thought. Suddenly there were screams from behind them. They looked down the hall where the other children had gone. Almost all of them were on the ground. There were several police lined up, carrying 5 unfamiliar children.

They continued running for the lab, hoping maybe they could overpower the doctors in there, get Sonar, and use the scramblers on another exit. Several guards stepped in front of them, all carrying the chemical weapons, and pointing them directly at the children. Phobia stepped in front of them. "Well I should have known you'd try it sooner or later."

Trioptica was mortified. 3,000 children now lay on the ground, reliving all the horrors that had happened to them in their young lives, Sonar would lose her baby, the rest of them would soon be in the Matrix, and it was all her fault. It had been her plan. 16 years of planning, and dreaming had all been in vain. She was going to die right then and there. Fear left her, and was replaced with rage. "I swear Phobia, before you can kill me, Smelt will be stoking the fires of the Pit for your spark!"

Phobia laughed, a maniacal, insane laugh of glee. "Kill you? No, no, no. That would just be another form of escape for you. I give you a choice. Come quietly with us, or we give you the medicine. I assure you though, once it wears off, you'll be in the lab until your joints are rusted from old age."

They slouched, defeated, and some of the guards came around behind them, and ushered them forward. They walked into the lab, and were chained to the wall. Several guards stood nearby, still pointing guns at them. "One false move, and all of you will get it." Phobia said. He turned toward the lab table. "Lets do this. No anesthesia."

Sonar was lying on the table, strapped down, and looking frightened. "NOOO!" Rampage cried. A guard punched him in the stomach.

Phobia took an energon scalpel, and sliced open her stomach mercilessly. She cried out. They all yelled in a mix of horror and sorrow, as they watched their friend have her baby torn from her stomach. After a few minutes, that felt like forever, Phobia gripped something squirming. A small gold baby boy, which had the same face as Rampage was pulled out by his ankles. Phobia grinned evilly, and swung the baby with all his might, slamming his head against the wall directly above Rampage.

Mech fluid sprayed all over his face, as he screamed in rage and horror. "MY SON! YOU KILLED MY SON!" He tugged at the chains against the wall, and pulled the left arm shackle out of the wall. Instantly 5 darts hit him, and he slumped, screaming in terror.

Most of them sobbed wildly at the sight of the battered corpse. Only one was silent. Trioptica stared blankly ahead, her mind filled with half formed thoughts of regret, and rage, tears falling swiftly down her face. In her spark she knew that the baby's death was on her head as much as it was Phobia's, just as it had been with her own.

Phobia then reached back inside with the knife, and cut something out of Sonar, who was screaming, mech fluid covering her lips. He removed a floppy sack, with two tines attached. "No more babies for you Sonar." He laughed, then used a laser to seal her stomach back up.

An hour later they were led back to their cells. Despite Phobia's promise that he would lock any who had to be shot away in the lab forever, he had allowed Rampage to return to his cell, if only so he could come out of his trance to see what had happened to his beloved.

They were surprised to see the five children they had noticed during the escape lying unconscious in their cells, an orange and red femme as well as a black and blue mech in Trioptica's, a green mech and two identical ice blue mechs in Pinks. Soultail bent down next to the femme. "She's younger than me."

Airrizzon bent down on her other side. "I'd say they're both about twelve Stellar cycles old." She said sadly.

Stellar nodded grimly. "This is a good thing. It means that more children must still be out there. It's been years since they brought ones this old in. More people must be getting suspicious about where their children are going by now."

Trioptica nodded, but didn't look at them. She moved quietly to the back area where they slept, and curled up.

Stellar nodded to Airrizzon, and she moved toward her. "Trioptica? Are you alright?"

"I killed that baby." She said quietly, her voice strained with emotion.

Airrizzon looked confused. "You didn't kill him, Phobia did."

She shook her head. "No, if I hadn't been so eager and reckless, Sonar wouldn't have had to be a sacrifice. If I hadn't been so stupid, and tried to save all the children we would have made it!"

"But you tried to do what was right! Phobia would have killed her baby either way." Airrizzon argued.

Trioptica shot up, and glared at her, tears in her optics. "How do you know?! How do you know what he would have done?! Phobia's insane! How do you predict an unpredictable mind?" She sobbed.

Airrizzon hugged her, and Trioptica tried to throw her off. She just held her fiercely until Trioptica broke out into sobs, and clutched her desperately. "Where the slag are we?" A voice said.

They looked toward the next cell. One of the blue mechs had woken up, and was looking around nervously. The other bots were beginning to stir, and looked just as frightened.

"This is the Pit on Cybertron kids. This is P.E.L.M." Tyranno said. They looked at him fearfully.

The red femme started to cry. "I want my daddy!" She sobbed.

Airrizzon looked at Trioptica. She gave Airrizzon a firm look of resolve, and stood up. "This isn't the Pit, but it is a terrible place. We're all being held here against our will because we have special powers, but someday soon we will escape from here."

Stellar nodded at her, then turned to the new children. "I'm Stellar, and this is my twin sister Trioptica. What are your names?"

"And how did you get caught?" Tyranno said. The others glared at him. "What? It'd be good to know. We haven't been on the outside for years. Any details about how they were found might help us prevent recapture."

The red girl hicoughed. "M..Mystic... I... I..." Her optics filled with tears. "I killed my daddy!" The others looked stunned. "I had a nightmare, and I set my home on fire while I was asleep."

She started sobbing, and Airrizzon ran to her. "Oh dear!" She took the child in her arms, and tried to comfort her.

The black and blue mech seemed not to notice Mystic. "Where's Ozonide? Where'd they put him?"

"Terminator not know. Terminator only see same bots in same cells." Terminator said while cuddling Sundance and Moondance who were sobbing at the unconscious forms of Rampage and Sonar."

"Huh?!" The mech said.

"What he means is there are no other new children here. We only saw the five of you being carried in. They may have killed him."

Surprisingly, the mech didn't seem overly worried about his friend. "Oh, well I'm Chronose. My friend and I were... we were hiding in the sewer cause we're both different, and when the cops went after some Reploids he... panicked and set off some exploding nanites in the cops bodies. Next thing I know I'm here. I'm a real psychic. I can make people's heads hurt, and I can move anything I want."

Trioptica wasn't sure she entirely liked the boy, but decided against arguing with him. The green mech spoke up next. "I'm Triassicus. I can turn into water... my mom died a long time ago, and she had mentioned this place. She said they had been looking for me, and made my brother promise to keep me safe. I screwed up... I was showing off to a friend, and his mom came in. Next thing I know there's all these cops, and they shoot me with something." He sat heavily on the floor, looking depressed.

One of the blue mechs stood up, and moved next to his twin. "I'm Dash, and this is my brother Flash. We can move at super fast speed, and control any element. When we were three our dad killed our mom, and tried to go after us, but we took off, and have been on our own since, just avoiding cops, and stealing what we needed to survive."

Stellar shook his head. "It still gives us no insight as to how they track down psychics."

"From the sounds of it I'd say it was pure dumb luck most of them were caught." Airrizzon said, still cuddling Mystic.

Trioptica looked around at the newcomers. "It doesn't matter. We may have lost this time, but this is just the beginning." She looked around at the others. "I can't ask you to do what I'm about to propose, but what Phobia pulled today has opened my optics. We've been playing games, and he's just been toying with us. We have to become more serious. No more cowering in the corner as he performs his tests. From now on, no matter what he does we fight back. He's hurt us, and taken everything we have from us. If we don't fight back we'll die. Sooner or later he'll tire of toying with us like this and kill us like he has so many other children. From now on when he comes to get me I will fight back."

Stellar stood up, and put a hand on her shoulder. "You're finally acting like a real leader Trioptica. I'm with you 100%."

Airrizzon let go of Mystic and stood on her other side. "In all medicines is a certain amount of plant additives. I'll use my powers to try and find a way to manipulate them so they're useless against us."

Soultail hugged Trioptica. "They could never even touch me. I'll work twice as hard stealing their instruments."

"Terminator not let friend bot die in vain no more. Terminator help too." He said moving close to the barrier.

"We'll protect mama!" Sundance and Moondance yelled.

Pinkpanther smiled softly, and tears overflowed in her optics. Tyranno gave her a compassionate look. "I'm so happy. I was scared I'd have to go through what Sonar did."

Airrizzon gasped, and ran to her side of the barrier. "Pink, you're pregnant?"

Tyranno smiled. "I haven't let them come near her for decacycles, but she told me this morning she's missed her monthly cycle. It's too early to tell for sure, but...

Pink smiled, and placed a hand on her stomach. "I am. I can sense it."

Tyranno nodded. "Any bot who enters this cell and tries to hurt you, these kids, or our baby will be bent in half."

"I can use my powers to make those guards pass out when they come for anyone in here." Chronose said.

Trioptica looked out toward the hallway. "Then this is it. This is our stand. If they manage to take one of us into the lab despite our best efforts, then the doctors will pay the price for it. We fight back. The war against P.E.L.M begins today!"


	6. The Escape

The Escape.

_Ok this is it, this is the last one. I hope you all enjoyed reading this series as much as I enjoyed writing it. This whole thing is dedicated to Soultail-Omegalight, Pinkpanther, Shockbox, Skyfire, and Darktide. I also dedicate this to every person that ever has, and ever will visit the Beast Wars Bed and Breakfast forum here on . Finally it's dedicated to you, the reader. Please enjoy the last chapter of The P.E.L.M. Chronicles._

Phobia stood nervously in the chamber of the counsel of elders. It had been many years since they had summoned him, but this was a matter of urgency. "You told us that doing this would prevent a threat from harming our people. You lied. You proposed to this counsel that we use your research to infuse these powers into drones for weapons against the Predicons and Reploids. Your research has done nothing. Do you have anything to say in your defense?"

Phobia bowed. "It is difficult to conduct my research. For the past two stellar cycles the children in my facility have been rebelling actively, and all our efforts to restore order have been fruitless."

"Excuses! Phobia we are hereby taking full control of the P.E.L.M research facility. You are relieved of your duties." The head of the counsel said.

He bowed and walked out of the chamber. As he went toward the exit, a secretary ran up to him. "Doctor Phobia, your presence has been requested in room 406."

He looked at her coldly, then went toward the elevator, and took it to the fourth floor. He knocked on the door, and heard someone call "Enter."

He walked in, and noticed a familiar form draped in black cloth, much like humans wore. He realized who he was talking to. "Head counsel member, what did you forget to say in the meeting?"

"Save it." He said coldly. "Your ineptitude not withstanding there is another reason you've been removed from P.E.L.M, a reason that few on the counsel are aware of." Phobia leaned closer, his interest piqued. "The Predicon named Megatron has been recruiting bots to help steal the golden disk. We want you to help him. The rest of the counsel thinks the best way to end the Reploid and Predicon issue is to take a more up front approach, but those of us in the Tripeticus counsel believe they are just as big of an issue. We aren't related to any of them, we're superior to Predicons, Maximals, and Reploids. Megatron seems to want to get to Prehistoric Earth to change history to benefit the Predicons. You're to ensure that once he arrives, both Maximals and Predicons never come into existence. Understood?"

Phobia grinned widely. "If it's permitted, I'd like to bring along one subject from P.E.L.M. His spark is said to be inextinguishable, and he's lost it enough where he won't be hard to control."

The counsel member nodded. "Alright. Tell me his name, and I'll arrange it."

Phobia grinned. "Terminator."

Trioptica looked around the cells calmly. They were a battered, and beaten group, many of them had been through more pain and torture in the past two years than they had in their whole lives, but it had been worth it. All her friends had done their jobs well. When they failed to protect one another from the doctors and guards, the ones they took would give them so much grief that they would be returned after a day or so, and nobody else would be taken for at least a few weeks, not to mention they were able to come back with twice the amount of supplies as before.

About three days after Sonar had been forced to abort her baby, the guards realized that they were fighting back, and Phobia had ordered them not to be fed. That was fine with them. Airrizzon had quickly learned how to create more than just wood. She made healthy fruits and vegetables grow right out of her hands to feed them all. When Triassicus turned to water he left a bit of moisture on the floor behind him, which Flash and Dash then collected, and passed around to the others in the three cells. It wasn't as nourishing as energon, but since it had all come from Cybertronians, it could be safely consumed without adding any energon to it. They had lived off that kind of food for two years.

There had been losses, sacrifices. Just a few months before the guards had succeeded in getting Terminator out of the cell. They had expected he'd return like he always had, but this time he hadn't. She knew in her spark that he was gone forever. Another life that had been lost because of her. It simply hardened her resolve, and made her more bitter.

Trioptica had been urging them all to practice their abilities in the long hours between wake and sleep. They had grown strong with them. She sensed it was almost time. A loud scream brought her out of her thoughts. She looked toward the cell on her right. Tyranno was lying on the floor, clenching his fist painfully. Flash, Dash, Triassicus, Pinkpanther and her three one stellar old sons Rashad, Zaron, and Ion were up against the back wall, seemingly unable to move. She went toward the barrier. "It's getting worse isn't it Tyranno?"

He glanced over to her. "I can't help it... I'm creating too many magnetic fields." He said, his voice tight with pain.

"It'll calm down hon, the training helps doesn't it?" Pink said to him.

He winced, and smiled at her. "Yeah... It helps... like a dagger in the spark." He said the last part quietly enough so she couldn't hear him, but Trioptica did.

She exchanged a sad look with him. She could sense what he was hiding from his love. He was dying. His own body was rejecting his powers. Soon he would depolarize, and his spark would be extinguished. She noticed Chronose looking at Tyranno and smiling, like he was trying not to laugh. "It's not funny."

He chuckled. "Sure it is." She shook her head. There was something wrong with that boy, but while they were in P.E.L.M she needed him. He was sometimes the only one that was willing to do whatever it took to hold off the guards and doctors. She'd worry about him after they escaped.

The sound of footsteps echoed down the hall, and they all moved toward the front of the cells to see who was coming. Four guards surrounded a bot draped in black cloth from head to toe. They stopped in front of her cell. The bot stood there, staring at them for several minutes. Finally he spoke. "So you're the ones who gave Phobia so much trouble." They remained silent. He waved at one of the guards. "Bring me the youngest child from one of the other cells."

The guard did as he asked. He returned with a young femme, perhaps three stellar cycles old. She was crying. He bend down to her level. "And what powers do you have little one?" He said in a gentle voice.

She sniffled. "I make clay." She held out her hand, and a small lump of clay formed. It twisted, then hardened into the shape of a flower. "See?"

"That's a very nice gift. A shame for it to be wasted." He said. Before any of them could blink, he pulled out a gun, and shot her in the head. Every child who could see what had happened in the cell block screamed in horror as the child's spark rose.

"What the pit was that for? She was just a child!" Stellar yelled.

The mech stood up straight, and looked toward them, then yelled loud enough for all the children to hear. "Every day one of you will be killed, unless of course the bot in charge of this little gang of rebels identifies themselves, and surrenders their lives in exchange for yours. In 24 hours I'll be back to kill another child." He looked at his guards. "Take the girl around the cell block. I want every child here to see their fate."

There was much sobbing, and screams of terror as the little girl was displayed for all the children to see. At last the guards, and the cloaked bot left, and an eruption of shouts and curses were flung toward the bots in the three center cells. "Just surrender you whores!" "You'll get us all killed!" "She was my friend you assholes!"

Once the barrage of insults ended, Trioptica waved the others forward for a meeting. "I can't allow for any lives to be taken. I'll surrender to them when they come back tomorrow."

Stellar shook his head. "I won't let you martyr yourself sister. I'll go in your place."

Soultail looked at them sadly. "We can't lose either of you! We'd never be able to organize an escape if one of you died."

"They'd probably kill us all. It seems Phobia's not in charge anymore. The man in the cloak is the new threat." Rampage said calmly.

Trioptica sighed. "We have no choice friends. We escape tomorrow night, just us. The other children would all be killed if they attempted, and if any of us are caught we'll probably be too, but it doesn't seem like we have much choice. If they'll kill us either way, our only choice is to escape, and find a way to warn the rest of Cybertron about the real P.E.L.M, and the psychic drone plans Darktide discovered."

The others nodded their assent. They were in it all the way. Stellar looked at them all in turn. "We have 24 hours left to us. Lets make a plan, and pray to Primus it works... for the sake of all Cyberton."

The hooded bot walked down the cell block. He stopped in front of Trioptica and Stellar's cell. "Well, will the leader identify themselves tonight, or will you allow another innocent life to be taken to keep you safe?"

"No lives shall be taken on our account." Trioptica said. Her and Stellar stood up, and looked at him calmly. "My name is Trioptica, and this is my twin brother Stellar. He and I have both been leading this group of rebels as you call us. We both surrender, and will do as you ask."

"Good. I suppose you're Maximals. Noble to the end aren't you?" The mech said. "You're to come with us to the lab for... a final test."

They both looked grim, but stepped forward calmly. Airrizzon ran up to Trioptica. "Here. Maybe she'll give you comfort one more time." She said, passing her a very dirty, and barely recognizable stuffed leopard.

She took it, and said to Airrizzon, tears in her optics. "You've been my one true friend. Live well Airrizzon."

They walked out of the cell, and stood in front of the hooded bot. He grabbed the toy, and threw it down on the ground fiercely. "Rubbish." He grinned widely at them, and looked at a clip board. "Trioptica and Stellar. You were brought here eighteen years ago at the age of three. You know nothing about the world outside this place. What could you possibly hope to find out there?"

Stellar looked at him with a trace of defiance on his face. "Freedom."

He stared at him for a few moments. "Noble, as I said. Pathetic but noble. The lab is waiting." They walked away with him and the guards, heads held high.

After the door had shut to the cell block the others waited a few moments. Finally they nodded at Soul, who was clutching a ragged looking stuffed tiger. She squeezed it, and both it and the leopard just outside the door glowed blue. A wide beam shot from both, knocking out the power in the three cells. "Lets hurry." Rampage said.

They ran toward the end of the cell block, Tyranno in front. He flung his hands forward, and the door exploded open. The guards on the other side were hit with shrapnel, and knocked unconscious. They turned right, and ran toward the labs. "They're in the fifth lab!" Moondance and Sundance said at the same time.

They headed for the lab as fast as they could. Triassicus transformed, and slid into the side of the door. They heard a click as it was unlocked, and swung open. Trioptica and Stellar were chained to tables, surrounded by at least twenty guards. They turned to aim their guns at them, but Airrizzon waved her hand, and the cartridges in them exploded. They suddenly clutched their heads, and fell to the ground, as Chronose put a hand forward, and caused them to go into stasis lock.

"Well done." Stellar said. With a wave of Tyranno's hand, the chains were off them. "Lets hurry to the loading dock."

They ran full tilt. Suddenly alarms sounded throughout the building. "We anticipated this. Tyranno, Flash, Dash, Blaze, Chronose, cover the rear. Triassicus, Rampage, Airrizzon, you're up front with Stellar and I. The rest of you stay in the middle, and move fast!" Trioptica yelled.

They started running. They heard footsteps behind them. Blaze, Flash and Dash launched long range blasts at any guards who came toward them. Several darts came flying toward them. The three of them were hit, and fell. "FLASH, DASH!" Chronose yelled. He turned back toward them.

"Chronose, stick to the Smelt damn plan!" Tyranno yelled. "We can't afford to all be caught, the fate of Cybertron depends on it!"

He ignored Tyranno, and ran back. Tyranno stopped, and looked back, then ahead. He saw Pinkpanther, who paused to look at him. He saw his three beautiful sons crying fearfully in her arms, and continued running. _My sons will live free!_

They turned right at the end of the hall. Just ahead was more guards. Behind them a sealed door leading to the shipping bay, and freedom. Airrizzon waved her hand, and again the gun cartridges exploded. Stellar and Trioptica shot a wave of ice toward them, and encased their feet in it. The guards fell over. They tried to grab their ankles as they ran, and two succeeded. "SUNDANCE HELP!"

"MOONDANCE!" Sundance cried. Airrizzon turned back around, and grabbed Sundance by the waist, and carried her along. "We've gotta help her, we've gotta!"

"We can free her once the truth is out Sundance, Moondance will be ok, just run!" Airrizzon yelled, carrying the young woman.

"SISTER!!!" They cried.

Another guard had grabbed Triassicus by the ankle. He tried to transform, but his liquid body began freezing to the ice. They looked back at him. "Just go! If you ever see my brother, tell him it wasn't his fault!"

They continued toward the door, with more guards following them. Airrizzon waved her hand behind her, and tried to destroy their weapons, but that didn't matter. They were no longer trying to disable them, they were trying to kill them. Laser fire ripped through the halls. They reached the door, and Tyranno pushed it away. They ran, but then Pink screamed. "TYRANNO!"

He had stopped moving, his arms stuck in front of him, a look of pure agony on his face. She tried to run back toward him, but was stopped by an invisible wall. "It's finally happening. Go, they can't get past me to get to you. I'm depolarizing."

"NO NO YOU HAVE TO COME WITH US, YOU HAVE TO HELP ME RAISE OUR CHILDREN!" Pink yelled.

He smiled painfully. "I love you Pinkpanther. I did ever since you were tossed in my cell. When they're old enough, tell them I love them. Live free Pink. I want you and our sons to always live free."

He began twitching and sparking as his body shut down from the excess power in his system. Trioptica put a hand on her shoulder, and gently turned her around. "He bought us our freedom, so your sons can grow up as we never had the chance to. Don't let it be in vain."

She looked back at him one more time. "I love you Tyranno." And clutching the babies to her chest, with tears streaming down her face, she ran.

They ran through the loading bay, and Rampage kicked open a door at the other end. Fresh air hit their faces, and they all paused for a moment. They were free. They ran across the grounds, and hopped a fence. In the distance they heard sirens. "Lets split up into groups of two. Pink you and Soultail together. Airrizzon you stay with Sundance. Rampage with Sonar. Stellar with me. That way each of us has backup if we're found. We find a safe places to hide, then we find a way to alert the public." She put her hand forward. "For freedom."

They each put a hand forward, and grasped each others hands , before taking off in different directions.

Airrizzon and Sundance ran as fast as they could. Sundance was sobbing wildly. "I can't hear her anymore! Why can't I hear her anymore?"

They ran down an alley, and hopped a fence, into what looked like a school yard. Airrizzon paused, and hugged her. "We're probably too far away now. I know she's ok."

"Who's there?! State your names and functions!" A voice called from the shadows.

Sundance clutched Airrizzon fearfully. "My name is Airrizzon... I have no function but for freedom and peace."

A silhouette of a mech appeared in front of them. "Airrizzon... I've heard that name before... Freedom... the password is freedom."

Airrizzon lets go of Sundance, and stares in awe. "Impossible.... Darktide, is that you?!"

Darktide steps into the light near them. Airrizzon runs toward him, and hugs him fiercely. He slowly reaches around and returns the hug. "I know you from somewhere... but where?"

Airrizzon pulls back, looking stunned. "Darktide, you forgot me? Forgot P.E.L.M? It's thanks to you we're free! The data you brought us from Phobia helped us to escape tonight!"

Darktide held his head, and winced, trying to remember. The word P.E.L.M had brought back flashes of things. A boy being raped and tortured... a woman screaming... a child snapping off his own finger... a face... a cold face with yellow optics and an evil laugh. "The farthest back I can remember is waking up here at the mercenary academy. I've been here for about eight years, and am now the most renowned mercenary for hire on Cybertron... but." He looked at the two of them, and was suddenly self conscious. "You're naked."

"I haven't had anything to wear since I was two." Airrizzon said.

He nodded. "Come on. I have an apartment here on the grounds. I can get you some armor from the school, and you can rest. In the morning we'll talk about P.E.L.M."

Airrizzon and Sundance nodded, then followed Darktide toward a large building in the grounds of the mercenary academy.

Pinkpanther and Soultail ran as fast as they could. After several minutes they noticed a factory, with a loading bay door partially open. Pink opened her mind. "Nobody in there. Come on."

They walked inside, and Pink tried to sooth the babies as Soultail wandered around, looking nervous. "Pink, I have a bad feeling about this place."

Pink walked back and forth with the boys, and finally sat down inside what seemed to be a bed with a high rim. "Don't worry. We can't wander around with them crying anyways. It'd draw too much attention."

Soul nodded, and leaned against the wall. Her back pressed against a button, and all the lights in the factory went on. "Preservation system activated."

Soul watched in horror as the thing Pink thought was a bed moved along a conveyor belt, into a machine. "PINK!"

"Holy shit is someone in there? Zero the lights are on!" A voice said.

"Shit X shut off the power or we'll get caught!" Another one yelled.

A Reploid ran up behind Soul, and slammed his fist on the button she had accidentally pressed. "Girl what do you think you're... Zero, Zero get over here, it's Soultail!"

Soul looked stunned. "Who are you, how do you know me?!"

Zero ran over, and grinned ear to ear. "It really is her. We've been watching you in that place for years, but we could never gather enough resources to mount a full rescue."

X moved closer to her, and smiled. "You look just like your mother."

Soul collapsed on the floor shaking. "You... you know my mom?"

Zero and X looked away sadly. "Yes, we did.... she died giving birth to you... It was a sad day for Reploids everywhere. Come on, we've got her old diaries hidden. We'll tell you everything we know." Zero said.

She shook her head. "But Pink, she got sucked into that machine with her sons! I can't just leave her."

They walked over to the machine, and looked at the pod that just came out of it. "It's bound for the Ascalon mission." Zero said with a smile. "That's a good thing. The man who's supposed to be running that mission is sort of your brother."

"WHAT?!" She yelled. "I have a brother?"

X laughed. "Optimus Prime and Iris Throne is a long story, but I promise you your friend couldn't be in better hands. Once she comes too on the ship she'll not only be with the most pure hearted Maximal in the fleet, but she'll be far away from Cybertron, where the counsel can't hurt her, and P.E.L.M can't find her. Her sons should come out of it safely too."

Soul didn't know why, but there was something she trusted about those two. She nodded, and touched the stasis pod gently. "If the rest of us fail, you'll definitely make it. Thanks Pink, for everything." She turned around, and walked out with her Reploid brethren.

Rampage held Sonar's hand tightly. He heard the sirens getting closer. "Slaggit, they're almost on us!"

"Nobody's on me. You're in front of me." Sonar said gently.

Rampage looked around franticly. He spotted a sewer grate slightly askew. He removed it, and pulled her toward it. "Honey I want you to climb down in there and wait for me. Don't go anywhere till I come back, I promise you I'll come back!"

"Ok." She said simply.

He hugged her tightly, and kissed her cheek. "I love you... I love you so much... Now go!" He ushered her into the sewer, and put the lid back down. Just as he straightened up, a search light flashed in his face, and a cop car stopped in front of him. "Freeze, don't move or I'll shoot!"

He lunged toward the car. He was hit with a low power beam, that paralyzed him. He couldn't move! The officer dragged him off the hood of the car, placed hand cuffs on his wrists, and dragged him into the back seat. He got into the front and began driving. He was silent for a while, then finally he said. "I know where I have to take you, and if I could I'd drive you as far away as I could, but my partner Wavelength..."

"He would get angry or something?" Rampage said in a mocking tone.

"He went missing two weeks ago.... I was about to go to counseling for what I've done to you people over the past eighteen years, but he began to break down when he realized his daughter Consel might be put into this unit. I thought he didn't have a heart until then..." Rampage snorted, but the officer's next words stunned him more than the laser had. "If only I could go back to that day eighteen years ago I would never have taken little Rampage to the station!"

"STREAMLINE!" He yelled.

Streamline hit the breaks and skidded, crashing through a gate. He looked back at Rampage. "Primus... is it really you?For so long I thought I had sent you to your death!"

"I remembered what you told me, I survived, I was strong!" He said smiling.

Streamline smiled back, got out of the car, and opened Rampage's door. "Here let me get those off. I made the mistake of sending you to that place all those years ago, and I'll be damned if I do it again."

He removed the cuffs, and Rampage stood up. They hugged like old friends. "Streamline, where you found me, I hid my girlfriend around there. She's suffered so much from P.E.L.M, and isn't mentally sound. Please take me back to get her."

Streamline nodded. "Anything Rampage. I have a lot to make up for. Lets go."

They turned to enter the vehicle, but then search lights hit them, and they froze. "You've entered the restricted zone of colony omicron. Don't move or you'll be killed on the spot."

Streamline yelled back to them. "Listen to me, I'm a police officer. I'm just going to reach for my shield..." Rampage heard a loud bang, and turned. As though in slow motion he saw Streamline fall to the ground with a stunned look on his face.

"NOOO!" He yelled. He collapsed next to Streamline, and took his hand. "Hold on, just hold on!"

Streamline coughed out a bit of mech fluid. "Rampage... Do you forgive me for what I did to you?" Rampage nodded. "Then I can join the Matrix at peace. The fires of the Pit will remain stoked for those who hurt you.... Rampage.... I never had a son... but... if I did... I'd want him to be just.... like... you..." Streamline went still, and Rampage screamed as his spark floated away toward the Matrix.

"Surrender or die!" The voice called out.

Rampage was filled with something he'd never known before. A pure hatred, and rage, passed down through his ancestry, his Predicon heritage. He turned toward the buildings ahead of him, and smiled evilly. "Lets dance."

Stellar and Trioptica were terrified. Somehow they had made it onto the main strip of Cybertropolis. Trioptica was tiring. All the people did was point and stare at their naked forms. She wasn't watching where she was going. "Trioptica, watch out for that bot!" She heard Stellar yell from far away.

A nanoclick too late she saw the bot as she ran into him. She landed on top of him, and their optics locked. She felt something deep within her, some sense of destiny. She felt a tug on her arm. "We have to get out of here!"

She stood up, and clutched at the mech's arm. "Please hide us, we can't be sent back, they'll kill us!"

His optics looked at her, and she saw nothing but warmth behind them. "Follow me." He said. He led them down a back alley, and up a set of stairs. He hopped through a window on the top floor. An elderly femme looked over at them. "Evening miss Leatherhelm."

"You forgot the toothbrush in the fridge." Miss Leatherhelm said.

"Yes, I'll grab it tomorrow. Take care." The mech said as he led them out the door of her apartment.

"Happy Primus day..." She said with a vague wave.

Trioptica and Stellar looked confused. "Miss Leatherhelm. Believe it or not she's an original prototype Maximal... she's gone a bit rusty in the mother board, but she's nice enough. Here we go." He said as he stopped in front of a door. He pulled a key out of his subspace pocket, and let them in. "Now, who are you, and what's going on?" He said.

Stellar gave him a searching look, but couldn't sense any ill intent from him. "I'm Stellar and this is my twin sister Trioptica. We... we've spent our lives in a research facility, and just escaped tonight."

"Why are you both naked?" He asked.

Trioptica looked down, suddenly feeling bashful. "I haven't had armor to wear since I was three, and Phobia took us from our family."

"My name is Optimus Primal. I'm a captain aboard the Ascalon. We'll be heading on a deep space mission in a couple of days. I don't know how safe you'll be here, but if you want, I can hide you on board the ship in stasis pods. We'll be activating them a few weeks into space." He said.

Trioptica looked excited, and opened her mouth to speak, but Stellar cut her off. "We'll have to think about it. Leaving Cybertron is a difficult decision. Do you have a place where we may sleep?"

Optimus looked stunned, but recovered quickly. "You can sleep on my couches out here. I'll go get you some blankets. Just let me know in a couple of days what you want to do."

Optimus had left the apartment early that morning. He mentioned something about a new assignment, told them he was leaving that evening, and gave them the address of the building where they could be put into stasis pods if they decided to come along, then left. "What do you think Stellar?" Trioptica said after he left. "We can be safe, we can hide until they stop searching for us, and come back to tell everyone the truth!"

"Plus you'll have the opportunity to get to know Optimus more personally." Stellar said with a small smile.

Trioptica blushed. "It's nothing like that. He's nice, and he's helping us, that's all."

Stellar sighed. "Sister you can't hide anything from me, I know your thoughts. You've really fallen for this Optimus Primal." She looked down. "Listen sister, I have an idea. There's a way we can go with him, and make sure everyone's ok."

"How?"

Stellar grimaced. "It won't be easy... and... sister we all must sacrifice something for the greater good. You've sacrificed so much, so now it's my turn."

Trioptica looked at him nervously. "You're scaring me." She tried to read his mind, but he blocked her out.

"Trust me one last time. Come on, lets head to the stasis conversion factory." They took the address, and hidden in the armor that Optimus gave them, white for Stellar and blue for Trioptica, they walked the three blocks to the factory. Stellar put his hand on her shoulder. "No matter what happens, we live free sister."

"Stellar?" She said nervously. Suddenly she gasped. He had made full contact with her mind, but not just hers. She could feel all of them, connected to her somehow. She knew that Airrizzon and Sundance were alive, and had found Darktide who they thought was dead. She knew that Pink lie safe in one of the stasis pods in the same room she was in, and that Soul had found peace of mind at last knowing her roots from people who loved her as much as she did. She knew that poor Sonar was sitting in a sewer, writing nonsense on a wall. She knew that Rampage was being forced into a stasis pod, and saw Optimus through his optics, shaking his head sadly.

She was even connected with the ones who were still in P.E.L.M. She cried as she realized that Moondance was being reprogrammed to hunt them. She felt Flash and Dash's fear as the doctors forced them to commit incest. She felt a sense of relief that Triassicus had managed to stay hidden, but was still trapped in P.E.L.M. She saw Mystic being kept in a container of water, with a tube up her throat to prevent her from drowning as she was tortured. She felt pure dread and disgust at the darkness that was in Chronose's spark, which was getting stronger every moment.

_My friends, freedom has arrived!_ They didn't just hear Stellar, they WERE Stellar. His voice resounded in their every fiber. _I ask all of you who made it out of P.E.L.M to come to my location, get into an empty stasis pod, and stay there. Our freedom has a name, the Ascalon. It will take us away from here, with a good man that will help us to prevent the disaster that approaches. Come to me now, I command you!_

Trioptica felt tired all of a sudden. It wasn't an unpleasant feeling, more like the tired you feel after eating a filling dinner, surrounded by loved ones, and fond memories, and you're eager to go to sleep and dream of it all over again. She saw Stellar moving toward a pod, and realized she was too. She noticed vaguely that the other five had appeared out of thin air, and were doing the same thing. She climbed in, and pressed a button on the side of it. It closed, and she felt it begin to move.

Her body tingled pleasantly as it liquefied, but in the last few moments before she went into stasis lock, she knew what Stellar had done. He had overstretched his powers. He had damaged his circuits in the process. After he would be put back on line, he would not remember her, or anything about P.E.L.M. Another thought crossed her mind and she shivered. They had all been linked together because of Stellar when it happened, so it was possible some of them had also received circuit damage. How many of her dear friends would even know who she was?

The end.


End file.
